Pakistan: Court orders government to release Indian national

On Thursday, a top court in Pakistan gave one-month deadline to the federal government to complete formalities to deport Indian prisoner Hamid Nihal Ansari, whose three-year jail term will end on December 15, this year.
33-year-old Hamid Nihal Ansari is a resident of resident, and he is currently in Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by a military court to three years’ imprisonment for allegedly possessing a fake Pakistani identity card on December 15, 2015.

Apparently, Hamid was arrested reportedly from Pakistan in 2012 and accused of illegally entering the country from Afghanistan, to meet a girl he had befriended online.

Peshawar High Court’s two-bench comprising of Justice Roohul Amin and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan, on Thursday heard an appeal filed by Hamid Ansari through a senior lawyer. As per the petition, the federal government hasn’t taken any steps for his release.

Qazi Muhammad Anwar- Hamid Ansari’s lawyer, said that his client’s prison term will end on December 15 and he should be released on the morning of December 16.

Hamid’s lawyer also informed the bench that the sentence of the 33-year-old would complete after two days and both the Ministry of Interior (Pakistan) and authorities of the prison, where he was lodged, were completely silent about his release and deportation to India.

According to an officer, representing Pakistan’s interior ministry, informed the court that a prisoner could be kept for one month while the legal documents were being prepared.

The court directed the ministry to make all the arrangements within a month for releasing and deportation of Hamid Ansari, after knowing the legal position of the case.

Notably, Pakistan’s deputy attorney general recorded his statement on behalf of the interior ministry and said that Hamid Ansari would be handed over to Indian authorities at Wagah border after completion of his term.

After he was arrested by Pakistani intelligence agencies in 2012, Hamid Nihal Ansari had gone missing, till he was traced back to the Pakistan prison.

Also read: Trump appoints Indian-American Woman to US Body Advocating Religious Freedom