ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: The Senate standing committee on foreign affairs on Friday urged both Islamabad and New Delhi to take adequate measures for unconditional and immediate release of Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails and Indians in Pakistani prisons.

It also demanded consular access to the Pakistani prisoners in India.

The committee was informed that the issue of Pakistani and Indian prisoners in each other’s countries had been included in the agenda of talks between their interior, secretaries scheduled for Aug 28 in New Delhi.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told the committee led by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed that the interior secretary had been directed to take up the issue with his Indian counterpart and India had agreed to discuss it.

The foreign secretary said there were 611 Pakistanis in Indian jails, including 52 fishermen.

He said the national status of 173 of the prisoners had been confirmed after verification while the identification of 178 was in process.

He said the government had been trying to get consular access to 208 Pakistani prisoners but it was awaiting response from the Indian side.

He said there were 576 Indians in Pakistani jails.

He said the progress made on the issue in the talks would be discussed in the meeting of foreign secretaries of both the countries in Islamabad next week with progress on other confidence-building measures during the past year.

He said relations between the two countries had been improving gradually and he hoped that the issue of prisoners would become a part of confidence-building measures between them.

The secretary said verification of the identities of the prisoners in Indian jails was a difficult process because relatives of those without documents were reluctant to provide information about them.

He said the government had decided to simplify the procedure of identification so that the prisoners without proper documents could be released as early as possible.

The official said all the embassies had been directed to take effective measures to help Pakistanis in case of any difficulty and seek consular access to get details of the prisoners.

Riaz Khan said many Pakistanis went abroad without documents because of various reasons, including economic conditions, causing difficulties for the country and its embassies.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said the Indian high commissioner had told him that New Delhi was ready to release the Pakistani prisoners whose identification had been confirmed.

The secretary said the Foreign Office had not received any such offer from the Indian government, but assured the committee that if such an offer was received officially, the government would be ready to take measures for the release of those prisoners.

Minister of State for Interior Dr Shahzad Wasim said that in many cases the verification process for prisoners in India was delayed due to incomplete addresses.

He said the release of fishermen from Indian jails would be on top of the agenda in the interior secretaries’ talks.