The Supreme Court on Friday directed deportation of four Pakistanis prisoners lodged in various jails of Jammu and Kashmir. The prisoners have been behind bars for about 12 years under offences which attract maximum punishment of up to two years. Observing that “no case stands against them,” the Bench of Justices B N Aggarwal and P P Naolekar directed the J&K Government to make recommendations to the Centre for their deportation by October 31.“Following which, the Union Government would take a final decision in view of those recommendations by November 30, 2007,” the Bench said, accepting the view of the petitioner Bhim Singh, president of the Panther’s Party, that a deadline should be fixed even for the Union Government to complete the formalities regarding deportation of theseprisoners.The bench termed the case of Raza-ul-Haq, Mohammad Usman Sheikh, Md Farooq Raja and Kudratullah, who were taken into custody about 12 years ago under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and are still languishing in jails in J&K, as “a situation of great misfortune”. The judges also took strong note of the report furnished by the state Government giving details of all such detainees. Meanwhile, the apex court also asked the J&K Chief Secretary to send a fresh list of Pakistani prisoners to the Union Home Ministry whose names were earlier recommended by the state for deportation.
