NEW DELHI: India has conveyed the names of four retired High Court judges to Pakistan as its nominees for the proposed joint committee on prisoners. The panel is expected to take steps to expedite the release of detainees who have served out their sentences and propose measures for humane treatment of others.

Justices K.R. Vyas, former Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Amarjit Choudhary and A.S. Gill, former judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and M.A. Khan, former Delhi High Court judge, will be the Indian nominees, the External Affairs Ministry said.

Addressing the press here on February 21, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri referred to the bilateral decision to set up the committee to examine the condition of prisoners in January.

"We tried to rise above our partisan considerations today purely from the point of view of human right because it really is very important that we address the issue of human rights. Last time, when His Excellency [External Affairs Minister] Mr. Pranab Mukherjee was in Islamabad I had suggested, in fact he had agreed, that we would nominate retired judges of supreme judiciary so that they have the capacity and the training to rise above all considerations and only think in humanitarian terms," he said.

Four names given

"I have handed over the names of four judges from Pakistan to my distinguished colleague today, who also has some names in his mind. In fact, he was telling me that it is only a matter of a few days, he has been working on it the way I was working on this.

"Once this is done by both the sides, I think, that will be one major step by Pakistan and India to think at a higher level. Regardless of whether the prisoner is a Pakistani or an Indian, in the first instance he is a human being. There are certain norms to which all human beings are entitled and I think the bringing in of the judges of the higher judiciary in both Pakistan and India will definitely provide relief to prisoners, whether they are under-trials, because the judges will be allowed to visit prisons in each other's country or to help facilitate the early release of those who have completed their sentences," Mr. Kasuri said.

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