Pakistan prisoner repatriation moves a step closer

Two years after the agreement, Pakistan government is close to developing a mechanism for transfer of offenders.

ABU DHABI // The families of many Pakistani prisoners in the UAE are still anxiously waiting for their loved ones to come home, two years after a repatriation agreement was signed.

The agreement between the UAE and Pakistan gave hope to many families that inmates would soon be returned to their home country to see out the remainder of their sentences.

Now, Pakistan’s mission in the UAE says that its government is in the process of developing the standard operating procedures and framework needed for the transfer of prisoners.

“The agreement was concluded between the government of Pakistan and the Government of the UAE on transfer of sentenced prisoners in 2012 and ratified in 2013,” an embassy official said.

“Once the standard operating procedures and framework are in place, the transfer of offenders can be expedited in accordance with the procedures stipulated in the agreement,” the official said.

The comments were made in response to Pakistani media reports that the court had issued a notification to authorities regarding the delay in the repatriation of female Pakistani prisoners from the UAE.

The embassy official said that the prisoners picked for repatriation would not be random.

According to the mission, there are conditions that have to be met.

“It stipulates a procedure whereby certain sentenced persons can be transferred from the country they are serving their sentences in, to their home country, to serve their remaining sentences, provided certain legal conditions are met, such as the act for which sentence has been awarded is a criminal offence in the home state as well, a minimum of six months are left on the sentence, and both states agree to the transfer,” he said.

Last year, the Sarim Burney Welfare Trust International, a non-government organisation in Pakistan, filed a petition that highlighted, despite the agreement between Pakistan and UAE authorities in 2012, that no progress had yet been made to bring the prisoners back home.

The trust filed the petition at the request of relatives of the female prisoners, who asked the organisation to take up the matter with the authorities.

The petitioners’ counsel said that the trust had already written to the offices of the Pakistan president and the prime minister, as well as the foreign affairs ministry, but no one had yet responded.

“The Sarim Burney Welfare Trust International has filed this case in the high court of Sindh, Pakistan, and eight hearings have been done so far. But the ministry of foreign affairs and the interior ministry have not responded,” said Muhammad Adnan Khan, the international relations manager for the trust.

“As a result, the Sindh high court has issued intimation notices to the federal authorities for hearing on August 12,” Mr Khan said.

The court, he said, was seeking to expedite the process of repatriating the female prisoners convicted by the courts of the UAE.

He said that the trust was pursuing the case purely on humanitarian grounds.

“Last year, nine Pakistani women prisoners asked us to help them for their early transfer to Pakistan in accordance with the agreement,” he said.