ISLAMABAD, June 30: Islamabad has proposed a comprehensive mechanism for activating the Pakistan-India committee on prisoners that was constituted in March this year.

The proposal was communicated to New Delhi through diplomatic channels earlier this week along with a call for early convening of the committee’s inaugural meeting, sources told Dawn, adding that it is likely to be discussed at the home secretary-level talks in New Delhi next week.

According to diplomatic sources, the proposal underlines the need for drawing up the committee’s terms of reference. It also suggests procedures for the committee to address the plight of prisoners by expediting consular access and determining national status.

During the foreign ministers meeting held here in January, Pakistan and India had agreed to establish a committee on prisoners comprising four retired judges of the superior judiciary from each side who would visit jails in the two countries.

The committee, formed at Pakistan’s initiative, is meant to propose steps to the two governments to ensure humane treatment and expedite release as well as repatriate prisoners on both sides.

Despite repeated claims by Pakistan and India of attaching high priority to the issue of civilian prisoners and treating it on humanitarian grounds, they have failed to convene a meeting of the committee on prisoners. When asked at a recent news briefing, the Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said that Pakistan had emphasised at every meeting that the committee ought to be made functional at the earliest but India was not forthcoming.

“We have always favoured greater attention to the plight of prisoners.

Unfortunately, we have not received the kind of cooperation we had expected from India on that issue,” she observed.

According to official figures, there are still over 450 Pakistani prisoners languishing in Indian jails, many of whom have completed their sentences.

There have been constant complaints from both sides of prisoners being tortured or mistreated. Several Pakistani prisoners who returned from India after the 2006 bilateral agreement had lost their mental balance.