‘Kabul is dealing with me for convicts’ release’

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: Javed Ibrahim Paracha, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, claims that he is negotiating with the Afghan government to secure the release of 200 Pakistani prisoners in return for two Afghans presently on death row in Punjab.

Mr Paracha told Daily Times that top Afghan officials had visited him and sought his help for the release of two Afghans convicted in a murder case by a court in Punjab. He said that the person killed by these Afghans was a Baloch. “We have formed a jirga that includes a senator from Balochistan to negotiate the deal with the family members of the deceased,” he said.

Paracha, who has won freedom for hundreds of foreign Al Qaeda suspects by appealing in the high court, revealed that the deceased’s family had refused a diyat offer of Rs 2 million and had demanded qisas instead.

The PML-N leader hoped the deceased’s family would agree to forgive the convicts to secure the release of 200 Pakistani prisoners languishing in private and government jails in Afghanistan. These Pakistanis were arrested after the fall of Taliban militia in late 2001.

Paracha refused to reveal the names of Afghan convicts and the officials negotiating the deal.

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