Ten very fortunate Pakistani prisoners will be released and repatriated to mark the 63rd Anniversary of Independence from imperialist British rule as also the Partition of India. A similarly symbolic number of Indians incarcerated in Pakistan are also expected to return home.
The Pakistanis include 63-year-old Mukhtar Masih finally liberated after 20 interminable years in jail at Ferozepur and Amritsar. Masih, like most of his other compatriots expected to be released and repatriated on August 17, has been forced to serve nearly thrice his seven-year sentence for “spying” only because the authorities were lethargic in tracking down his family in Pakistan’s Kasur district.
The apparent magnanimity of the bureaucratic and political establishments on both sides of the Attari-Wagah Border stands exposed as mere tokenism in face of the fact that hundreds of Indians and Pakistanis continue to languish in each others jails, often, without recourse to counselor access or legal aid.
Officials admit that even after Masih and his nine friends go home on Tuesday, Amritsar’s high security central jail will still have more than 150 Pakistani nationals. As many as 50 among these prisoners are “internees”, which means they too have completed their sentences and should rightly be accompanying the Independence Day group.
Despite the increase in civilian traffic and trade between the two countries prisoner exchanges remain ignored and often hostage to suspicion in relations.