UAE-Pakistan pact allows rehabilitation of convicts

Dubai: The UAE and Pakistan on Sunday signed a prisoner extradition treaty.

The treaty was signed by Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, and Rahman Malek, Interior Minister of Pakistan.

According to the agreement, a person sentenced to more than six months imprisonment, will have the option to serve his jail term in his home country.

This will also allow for prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration into their original society, and allow families to visit their imprisoned relatives, which will therefore ensure family stability, and ease the mental and livelihood stress of both families and prisoners. A similar agreement has already been signed between the UAE and India recently.

Shaikh Saif stated that the agreement is in line with the directives of the UAE's wise leadership to provide all means of social stability and cohesion. He added that is also in line with the leadership's efforts to alleviate the suffering of various segments of society, including inmates in punitive and correctional establishments, within a humanitarian and civilised framework, and consolidating the principles of an efficient correctional and rehabilitative process.

Malek praised the efforts exerted by both governments and their contributions towards achieving international criminal justice, combating all forms of crime, in addition to their keenness to enforce the law in a way that takes into consideration international human rights and treaties regarding this matter.

The signing of the agreement was attended by Eisa Abdullah Al Basha, UAE Ambassador to Pakistan; Jameel Ahmad Khan, Pakistani Ambassador to the UAE, and other senior officials.

Agreement hailed

According to a spokesperson of the Pakistan Embassy, around 1,400 Pakistanis detained in UAE jails will benefit from the a prisoner exchange agreement.

However, there is no confirmation whether any UAE national is in jail in Pakistan. The lists of the prisoners, currently serving their sentence in the UAE jails, will be prepared by the UAE Embassy in coordination with the UAE authorities concerned for extradition purposes.

Community members hailed the decision and called it another step towards bringing both countries closer.

Rizwan Fancy, community welfare secretary at the Pakistan Association in Dubai, said that it is very good step. "Normally, most of the people jailed here are also deported at the end of the term. It will be good to send them back earlier as their relatives can also meet them there," he added.

Fancy who often visits jail facilities to help prisoners in minor affairs and to get air tickets for them, said the prisoners are treated very well here and he hoped that similar treatment will be given in Pakistani jails.

With inputs from WAM