THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two countries swap inmate lists twice a year, whether Abdul Mughni’s name made it to Pakistan’s inventory last January — 231 Indian prisoners, including 184 fisher-folk — is a mystery. On Friday, the Sindh High Court took issue with the conduct of the interior ministry as the latter had failed to deport a “detained Indian national despite a lapse of around seven years”; it observed that the appellant was an Indian national but the ministry did not put in enough effort to confirm his nationality. Mughni, arrested in 2013 under different provisions of the Foreigners Act, was sentenced to a prison term of six months in 2017. He has, in total, lost an extra 10 and a half years of his life to jail.

Since 2019, Pak-India ties have been at their frostiest, and the rigid positions taken by the two countries have proved detrimental for prisoners and their families on both sides. Detainees such as Mughni and poor fisher people end up spending years more than the term stipulated on account of lethargic trials and denial of consular access and legal aid. Both Pakistan and India would be well advised to reconsider the Agreement on Consular Access, which was first signed in 2008 as a confidence-building measure, for the sake of their people. Moreover, India and Pakistan are also required to follow the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, enforced in 1976. It states that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country”. It is time for a no-arrest policy for fishermen and to have a department dedicated to ensuring translators for prisoners, nationality verification, legal aid, consular access, speedy trials, etc. Lastly, Pak-India ties must thaw at least to a point where their helpless citizens are not denied the right to rely on political treaties.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2024