Global Issues
SOUTH ASIA: Fishers’ Release A Good Catch for India-Pakistan Ties
It took almost two hours before Jeenti Deva, 16, could board the bus that would bring him home to India, but the long wait did not stop him from smiling.
Waiting patiently inside the Malir Cantonment Jail compound here in the southern port city of Karachi in Pakistan’s Sindh province, Deva was among the 456 Indian fishers ordered released by the government in late August. They had continued to be held although they had completed their sentences for straying into Pakistani territorial waters.
Deva was among the first batch of 100 fishers sent home two days after the Sindh government on Aug. 28 ordered the repatriation of 442 of 456 detained Indian fishers, a process to be completed by early September.
To many, the release was a positive boost for relations between Pakistan and India, two South Asian neighbours whose ties have been testy through more than six decades and which have fought three wars.
Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, a member of the Pakistan-India Joint Judicial Commission, called it the biggest release of fishers from India. Syed Iqbal Haider, who argued the case on behalf of the two non-government groups that went to the Pakistan Supreme Court, says this happened due to the 'joint struggle of the civil society of the two countries' that led to pressing the matter in court.
'The turned tide was not on account of a change of heart of the Pakistani authorities towards the long languishing fishermen but on the order of the Supreme Court,' Zahid told IPS sardonically.
'In the love-hate relationship between India and Pakistan, the fishermen are used as pawns to get even,' lamented Mohammad Ali Shah, chairman of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF). Young Deva himself had been arrested along with five others after their boat had strayed into Pakistani waters.
The India-Pakistan maritime boundary between remains disputed 63 years since their partition in 1947. It was to have been resolved by May 2009, the deadline they set 10 years ago. But the Mumbai attacks on Nov. 26, 2008, which was blamed on Pakistani attackers, stalled the composite dialogue series, and sent this maritime discussion into cold storage as well.
Against this backdrop of uncertainty, maritime security agencies have, for more than two decades, been apprehending poor fishers on both sides of the border and confiscating their sole source of livelihood — their small vessels.
While the jail penalty is anywhere from three months to a year, the fishers are rarely released after completing these terms. Zahid says that the detention orders are renewed every three months without justification, and that the detainees are never produced in court.
But activists saw an opportunity this year when India’s Supreme Court ordered the release of some Pakistani prisoners and decided to try going to the courts in Pakistan as well.
In the first week of August, PFF and the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), another NGO that has been working for the release of 582 Indian fishers in various Sindh jails, filed a petition questioning the legality of their continued detention before the Supreme Court.
A hearing was set for Sep. 14, but on Aug. 26 Pakistan’s foreign ministry informed the interior ministry to release 456 fishers who had completed their prison terms. This took place after the Supreme Court on Aug. 12 asked the ministries of foreign affairs and interior and Sindh’s home department to explain under which legal provisions the fishers were still being detained.
While fishers from India and Pakistan have been released through the years, often on the basis of reciprocal arrangements, it is the first time that the NGOs have moved the court.
'For years we’d been writing to the government for the release of these fishermen but to no avail,' PILER executive director Karamat Ali said. 'But in March 2010, when in a landmark judgment the Supreme Court of India ordered release of 17 Pakistani prisoners who had completed their prison sentences, a precedent was set, and so we decided to plead in the court.'
'When fishermen are arrested for crossing over illegally, has a boundary been defined?' asked Haider, a former attorney-general. 'If not, then it is unlawful, immoral and unconstitutional to arrest fishermen from both sides for violating the limits.'
Most of these fishers, from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh states in India, spent up to three years in Pakistani prisons 'Thankfully, not one of them had been accused of any serious crime like espionage,' noted Haider.
The released fishers are being sent home to India in four batches from Aug. 30 to Sep. 6. The remaining 14 from the 456 fishers await their release as the Indian High Commission completes the paperwork.
Haider said 'this tit-for-tat mentality (India and Pakistan’s arresting each other’s nationals) has to change.' But this is unlikely to happen soon, although the arrest of Indian fishers often drives many into destitution. 'It’s a vile sin, to confiscate their vessels,' remarked Haider. 'The issue has to be dealt with compassion.'
For now, PILER and PFF are setting their sights on another release — that of their compatriots detained in India. 'We’d like India to release the Pakistani fishermen before Eid ul Fitr (a Muslim festival on Sep. 12 that marks the end of Ramadan),' said Mohmmad Ali Shah of PFF. He says 158 Pakistani fishermen remain detained in India, according to an Indian government list.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service