ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: Pakistan and the United Kingdom have agreed to sign a treaty on repatriating their nationals serving prison terms to complete the terms in their home countries.
"Prisoners serving more than six-month sentences will be sent to their home country to complete their terms," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Dawn on Sunday.
Over 400 Pakistanis, five of them women, are in British jails. Their repatriation to Pakistan would bring down the ‘extra burden’ on British jails, source said.
Only a handful of British nationals are serving prison terms in Pakistan.
They are expected to be sent to jails in their homelands.
Mr Sherpao said the treaty on prisoners' repatriation was agreed between Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and his British counterpart Tony Blair here on Sunday and it will be signed in a couple of days.
The two countries are also negotiating an extradition treaty of wanted people.
The law of capital punishment in Pakistan is stated to be in the way of signing of the treaty.
The British government is said to have told Islamabad that it would not repatriate any wanted man who had been awarded death sentence.
