Top legal luminaries of India and Pakistan are set to file formal petitions in the supreme courts of both the countries, seeking release of arrested fishermen.
Top legal luminaries of India and Pakistan are set to file formal petitions in the supreme courts of both the countries, seeking release of arrested fishermen, who continue to languish in jails even after completing their jail sentences.
"It will be a contempt plea in the apex court of India but a plain petition in the supreme court of Pakistan. Retired justice Rajendra Sachar, through a petition, will seek release of Pakistani fishermen held in Indian jails. Similarly, former Pakistani law minister and attorney general Iqbal Haider will fight for Indian fishermen held in Pakistan, a source in an NGO - Focus on the Global South, India - told DNA on Wednesday.
Haidar, who is also co-chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), is coming on a five-day visit to India on Thursday to meet the Indian civil society organisations for the purpose and will be filing a formal petition in Pakistani supreme court on his return to the country.
The decision to file a petition in the apex court of Pakistan was taken last week at a meeting at Karachi, where Mohmmed Ali Shah, chairman of the petitioner organisation, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), representatives of HRCP, Legal Aid Committee and the Pakistan Institute of Labour and Research (PILER) were present.
Sources said that the reason for Indian petition being a contempt one was that the Supreme Court of India had given a directive in its March 8, 2010 judgment that 17 Pakistani prisoners, who have completed their jail terms in India, be released forthwith. About 140 Pakistanis, who have completed their sentences, are still languishing in Indian jails.
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