460 Pakistanis languishing in Indian jails: minister

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Commerce, Khurram Dastgir Khan, on Tuesday said there were 460 Pakistanis in Indian jails and consular access had been sought.

Responding to a calling attention notice in the Senate on behalf of the adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, the minister said the ministry had been working to resolve the issue on a priority basis and had asked the Indian government for consular access to these prisoners with the efforts of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi.

He said the Pakistan High Commission was making all out efforts for the welfare of those prisoners. Replying to another calling attention notice, the minister said that the matter of the ransacking of the PIA office in New Delhi by some Hindu extremists last January had been taken up with the Indian government and it was asked to take action against the miscreants. He said adequate security was being ensured for the PIA offices so that no such incident took place in future.