The government yesterday informed the Senate that India had no record of 189 Pakistani nationals imprisoned there and this also reflected in the list of prisoners exchanged between the two countries.The reply from the government came after PPP Senator Sehar Kamran through a call attention notice drew its attention that 189 Pakistani prisoners were missing from the list exchanged by India with Pakistan.The federal minister for commerce Engineer Khurram Dastagir Khan, replying on behalf of adviser to the PM to foreign affairs, said that Pakistan and India, both maintained separate lists of other country’ prisoners and exchanged these with each other twice a year on the basis of a bilateral agreement signed in May 2008.”We have a list of 460 Pakistani nationals imprisoned in India while India has provided us a list of 271 prisoners detained there, thus there is a discrepancy of 189 prisoners,” he said, adding, that 20 Pakistani prisoners were in addition to that which were in the India’s list and having no record with Pakistan.
“We maintain our list from different sources.”But he said that there were no missing prisoners as some had returned to Pakistan after getting bails without informing the Pakistani High Commission in India.Responding to another call attention notice regarding attack on PIA offices in New Dehli, India and Dammam in Saudi Arabia, the minister said that latter was not attacked rather a theft incident occurred there. About the attack on PIA office in Dehli, he said that some miscreants had ransacked the office damaging the computers and other equipment. “We immediately took up the matter with Indian government for an immediate action against the attackers,” he said, adding, that Indian response was positive as it started an action against the miscreants.
Separately, Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani did not allow the government and the opposition alike to move a resolution in the house aimed at paying tributes to Shirmeen Obaid Chinoy for winning Oscar Award for his documentary on honour killings. “If the house wants to move a resolution, then it should also reflect those Pakistani women who are seen on roads demanding women rights,” he said, adding, the Oscars cannot change the ground reality. His remarks came after Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq sought permission from the chair to move the resolution. Nasreen Jalil, one of the movers said that she would bring the resolution on Wednesday (today) that would reflect the struggle of other Pakistani women.The secretary Senate, through an announcement, informed the house that government had rejected the recommendations of special committee of the Senate on devolution process and asked to reconsider these.
The committee had recommended that all policy and administrative boards, councils and bodies constituted under various acts of the Parliament or established by an executive order shall be reconstituted to ensure that equal representation is given to all provinces. “During course of examination, it was transpired that the directions given by the committee in certain areas may not be consistent with the administrative legislation, constitutional framework and laws of Pakistan,” the secretary Senate read out the letter of the Cabinet Division written to the Senate secretariat in response to the committee’s directions. The chairman asked the secretariat to fix a time for debate in the next week so that it could be seen.
Same version of the article appeared in The nation