The Pakistani government has paid over RS15,962,163 for the release of 251 prisoners languishing in various prisons around the world due in the last few years.

“Those prisoners have already completed their sentences for beggary, illegal stay, working on visit visas, driving under the influence of alcohol and non-payments of loans,” according to a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 2010-11, the Pakistani government facilitated the release of as many as 92 Pakistani prisoners from Gulf countries and Malaysia by paying fines and providing them with legal aid.

In 2011-12, the Pakistani mission in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE secured the release of 30 prisoners after paying fines.

In 2013-14, many Pakistani fishermen were released from Indian prisons after being provided with legal aid at the government’s expenses.

In 2013, the Pakistani Embassy in Riyadh told Arab News that some 700 Pakistani prisoners are languishing in Saudi jails all over the Kingdom. Most of them were convicted for petty crimes while some prisoners are being held on charges of drug trafficking.

The embassy also stated that many prisoners have not been convicted and their cases are under trial in different courts in the Kingdom.

The government paid RS3,777,488 in 2013 for securing the release of four Pakistanis incarcerated in Saudi Arabia.

Most of the Pakistani prisoners have been sentenced for drug trafficking, murder, rape, theft, offenses involving moral turpitude, forgery and fraud.

Recently, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry informed the Senate’s standing committee on interior and narcotics control that around 7,912 Pakistani prisoners are imprisoned in different countries around the world.