The members of committee Justice (Retd.) A.S Gill and Justice ® M.A Khan from the Indian side and Justice ® Nasir Aslam Zahid and Justice ® Mian Muhammad Ajmal from Pakistan side visited the jails.As many as 46 Pakistani prisoners at Central Jail Tihar, New Delhi, 98 at Central Jail, Jaipur and 45 at Central Jail, Amritsar were presented before the committee. On the conclusion of the visit, the Committee made following recommendations: The “Consular Access Agreement” of May 2008 signed between two government must be implemented fully. Consular access must be provided within three months of the arrest and repatriation must take place within one month of confirmation of national status and completion of sentences. Consular access must be provided immediately to all those prisoners, who have not been given consular access so far and the process of nationality confirmation should start immediately after consular access is provided. A mechanism should be developed for compassionate and humanitarian consideration to be given to women, juvenile, mentally challenged, old aged and all those prisoners suffering from serious illness/permanent physical disability.” It was also recommended that serious/terminally and mentally challenged prisoners must be kept in hospitals irrespective of confirmation of their national status and offence. Prisoners involved in minor offences like violation of Foreigners’ Act, visa violation and inadvertent border crossing deserve compassion from both the sides. The committee noted that the respective courts must be requested for expeditious trial of all “under trial” prisoners. Provision of legal aid/attorneys to prisoners must be ensured at all stages of their cases. The committee also endorsed the recommendations of the Home/Interior Secretary level talks held on March 28-29, 2011 at New Delhi to task the Pakistani Maritime Security Agency and Coast Guard of India to work on setting up a mechanism for release of inadvertent crossers (fishermen) and their boats, on the same lines as the inadvertent crossers on land. It was recommended that the fishermen should be repatriated by sea lanes along with their boats. It was suggested that the next visit of the committee to Pakistani jails be arranged during the second half of April this year. The committee will review the action taken on the earlier recommendations when it meets next in Pakistan.