‘Four prisoners transferred to Pakistan under Pak-UK prisoner transfer agreement’

LONDON: Britain’s Ministry of Justice has said that the Prisoner Transfer Agreement between the UK and Pakistan was agreed in 2007 and entered into force in 2008.

Some officials hailed the agreement signed on 27th December as a milestone which will help the government in bringing back some individuals the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government is interested in or as a breakthrough by the new government in Pakistan. Both the Ministry of Justice and Pakistan High Commission have confirmed that the agreement is only related to the transfer of prisoners who would voluntarily request to be transferred according to their own free will.

Answering questions by this correspondent, a spokesman of the Ministry of Justice said that the Prisoners Transfer Agreement was signed in 2007 but suspended by Pakistan in 2015.

The spokesman added: “An Amending Protocol was signed on 27th December which restarts the Prisoner Transfer Agreement between the UK and Pakistan - an agreement which was agreed in 2007 and entered into force in 2008, but was suspended by Pakistan in 2015. As well as restarting prisoner transfers, the Amending Protocol also updates the actual Prisoner Transfer Agreement by including strengthened assurances to ensure all transferred prisoners serve the appropriate sentence before being released.

The spokesman said that according to the most recent available statistics, compiled till 30 September 2018, there were 312 Pakistani foreign national offenders held by HM Prison Service in England and Wales. “Not all of these will be eligible to volunteer to transfer as some are on remand and some are immigration detainees.”

The spokesman said that between 2008 and 2015 only “4 prisoners have previously volunteered to transfer back to Pakistan”.

A Pakistan High Commission spokesman said that in context of the agreement that has been signed between Pakistan and the UK, SOPs for the procedure to transfer prisoners are in the process of being formulated. “As per the agreement, governments of both countries and the prisoners under consideration have to give their consent before the transfer process is commenced. Since the new agreement has only recently been signed, no prisoner has so far been transferred under this arrangement. According to official figures, there are a total of 433 Pakistani prisoners across Britain. However, this is a frequently changing figure as convicts complete their terms and new ones are added from time to time.”

Barrister Dr Tariq Mahmood said that though the UK and Pakistan prison transfer agreement has been hailed as a great milestone between the two nations but the reality is that only when we see the physical agreement will we be in a position to properly comment upon whether its wording is anything different from the Treaty Series No.13. Of 2008 on the transfer of prisoners signed between the UK and Pakistan.

“The previous agreement had 18 Articles to deal with the specific issues of the transfer of prisoners between the two nations. What was the need for this agreement when the 2008 agreement had the relevant measures in place to ensure the smooth transfer of prisoners between Pakistan and the UK? Only time will tell whether the new agreement brings any ground breaking changes. I am rather sceptical of it,” he commented.

Treaty Series No. 13 (2008) Agreement between Britain and Pakistan was signed in Islamabad on 24 August 2007.

The updated agreement was signed by the British High Commissioner Thomas Drew and Pakistan Interior Secretary Major (R) Azam Suleman Khan during the signing of UK-Pakistan Prisoner Transfer Agreement.

The agreement will give prisoners the opportunity to serve their sentence closer to home and allows them to prepare for their reintegration into their home community when they are eventually released from prison.