ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan is negotiating a prisoner exchange agreement with China which would allow the convicts to serve their sentences in Pakistan, the National Assembly was informed on Wednesday.
During question hour in the Lower House of the Parliament in Islamabad, the Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch told the House that a total of 260 Pakistanis are currently imprisoned in China.
The minister said that out of 260 Pakistani prisoners in China, 193 have been sentenced after conviction while 67 are in detention centres and awaiting trial.
Baloch said that majority of the Pakistanis under arrest in China are charged with drug trafficking and other serious crimes.
The House was further informed that the Pakistan Embassy in China seeks consular access from the Chinese authorities and oversees that the legal rights of the accused are granted.
On Tuesday, the President Mamnoon Hussain, during a one-on-one meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Islamabad, told him that a special security division of Pakistan army was being raised to provide security to Chinese nationals working on various projects in Pakistan.
Later, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) also confirmed it and said that the force would comprise army’s battalions and civil armed forces wings for the security of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
