PESHAWAR, June 26: A former federal lawmaker claimed on Sunday that the Afghan government had agreed to release about 200 Pakistani prisoners if local authorities freed two Afghan brothers facing the death penalty in Punjab.
Jawed Ibrahim Paracha said that Afghan officials in Peshawar had provided him a list of 37 Pakistani prisoners held in different Afghan prisons.
But Mr Paracha said that unless the officials gave him an authentic list of 200 prisoners the purported deal between a Baloch family and the Afghan government would not go through.
The two Afghan brothers were convicted of murdering a member of the Baloch family.
Mr Paracha, a PML-N leader who was elected in the 1997 general elections, also released to the press the list of 37 Pakistani prisoners provided by some Afghan officials who met him at his residence in the southern city of Kohat.
According to the said list, 22 of the 37 prisoners were held in Pul-i-Charkhi prison, 12 in Saidart prison, two in Jalalabad central prison and one in Charikar prison.
Mr Paracha, who did not disclose the names of the two Afghan brothers, stated that they had been lodged at Sahiwal prison. He said that a few years ago they had killed a person there who belonged to a Baloch family and the trial court had sentenced them to death. He claimed that their appeal had now been pending before the Supreme Court.
He added that an advocate of Sahiwal district, Abdul Mateen Chaudhry, would facilitate the meeting of the Afghan officials with the two brothers in the prison.
Under the Pakistan Penal Code, the legal heirs of the deceased can forgive the two brothers.
The PML-N leader, who is known for helping detained foreigners and securing their release, claimed that since the two brothers were close to some high-ups in Afghanistan,
Kabul was interested in their release.
Mr Paracha said that he was approached by the Afghan government to negotiate a deal for the release of the two prisoners. Upon his request, he said, the aggrieved Baloch family agreed to forgive the two brothers provided the Afghan government released 200 Pakistanis in return.
Mr Paracha claimed that a jirga would be held between the Baloch tribe and the Afghan officials following provision of a list of 200 prisoners.
He stated that a large number of Pakistanis had still been languishing in the private prisons of warlords and in different cases the family members here had to pay money ranging from Rs300,000 to Rs500,000 for their release.