M A I N   N E W S

Of fishermen and prisoners
Pakistan’s stand riles India
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 22
The all-important question of trust deficit is haunting the Indo-Pak relations yet again. This time on the petty but humanitarian issue of release of prisoners and fishermen.

The stunning thing is that hundreds of Indian prisoners and fishermen have been rotting in Pakistani jails for over 15 months.

India today issued a note verbale to Pakistan conveying its strong displeasure and disappointment over Islamabad’s failure to meet its solemn written assurances that it would release all Indian prisoners and fishermen by December 25, 2006.

At the Foreign Secretary-level talks here on November 14-15, the two countries had agreed to a Joint Statement, which, among other things, noted their decision to release by this Christmas, on humanitarian grounds, all fishermen and prisoners who have completed their sentence and whose national status stands confirmed.

On its part, India today released 24 Pakistani prisoners, along with three children, who were eligible for release and 30 fishermen whose nationality had been confirmed by Pakistan. India is prepared to release all 61 Pakistani fishermen in its custody but confirmation of national status of the remaining 31 fishermen is still awaited from Pakistan.

Pakistan today conveyed that it would release 20 Indian prisoners and 50 fishermen tomorrow.

“India has confirmed the national status of 412 Indian fishermen but is disappointed that Pakistan has decided to release only 50 of them. It is unfortunate that Pakistan has chosen not to fulfil its commitment made last month on the release of fishermen and prisoners. The government has conveyed its disappointment to the Pakistani authorities and expressed the hope that it will release all fishermen and eligible prisoners,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

This is the second time in the past seven months when a top Pakistani official has come and gone but the prisoners’ issue remains where it was. In May this year, the Pakistani Interior Secretary had assured the Indian Home Secretary during formal Home Secretary-level talks here that all Indian prisoners and fishermen would be released soon.

What is rankling for the South Block mandarins is not that Pakistan is reneging on its written assurances on the prisoners’ issue-not unlike Islamabad promising India the moon on the issue of terrorism. The bigger picture for India is that the Pakistan government has been giving New Delhi its word of honour on the Siachen issue and hoping that only its word would be enough.

The question being asked in the government circles here is: can we trust Pakistan on such a sensitive issue as Siachen when they can’t implement their written assurances on lesser issues like fishermen and prisoners?