Forty years after the war that created Bangladesh, the Indian government has agreed to pay salary and retirement benefits to the next of kin of the 54 prisoners of war (PoWs) still languishing in Pakistani jails.
The Union defence ministry, on Wednesday, filed an affidavit before the Gujarat high court stating that the finance ministry has agreed to pay all benefits to the heirs of the PoWs. The Union finance ministry will take all necessary steps to comply with the high court order, the affidavit states.
Defence secretary Shashikant Sharma filed an affidavit before the bench of acting chief justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and justice JB Pardiwala in response to a contempt of court petition filed in the high court in this regard. The petition was filed by advocate Kishor Paul as the Union government had not complied with the high court order in the case.
Earlier, on December 23, 2011, the high court bench had asked the Centre to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) within two months for the release of 54 PoWs still languishing in Pak jails. Court had also directed the Centre to pay all service and retirement benefits to the next of kin ofPoWs.
Again, on April 19 this year, HC had issued a stern warning to the Centre and asked the defence secretary to remain present in court for not complying with the order.The defence ministry hasagreed to give all pay and retirement benefits to the heirs of the 54 PoWs as it has been approved by finance ministry, said Paul, counsel for original petitioner, late Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Arora.
Paul further said that the defence ministry had also informed the court that as it had approached the Supreme Court against the high court order to approach the ICJ, it needed four months time.
"However, the high court gave it time till June 14 for further hearing before the Apex court and release of pay and retirement benefits," the counsel said.The petition raising the issue of Indian PoWs of the 1971 war not yet released by Pakistan was filed in the year 2000. The petitioner had stated that this was in breach of the Shimla agreement signed between India and Pakistan after the war. The petition had claimed that India had sent back all Pakistani PoWs while the neighbouring country had sent 632 soldiers.
In 1999, however, it was learnt that 54 PoWs were still in Pakistani jails and out of these, two - Kalyan Rathod of Sabarkantha and N Shanker of Vadodara, a pilot - were from Gujarat, the petition stated. This had come to light when other Indian prisoners released from Pakistan jails gave details of those still lodged in prisons in the neighbouring country, along with their names and origin.The high court had issued an order last year observing that it was a breach of the Shimla agreement and India should approach the ICJ for the release of the PoWs held by Pakistan. Pakistan had earlier claimed that there was not a single Indian PoW of the 1971 war still left in Pakistani jails.
