Over 10,000 Pakistani nationals jailed in foreign countries

Over 10,000 Pakistani nationals are jailed in different countries, nearly half of them convicted on criminal charges, the country's foreign office said on Thursday.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said Pakistan was fully aware of its responsibilities and was making effort to get the Pakistani prisoners released.

"Around half the number are convicted on criminal charges that range from an entire gamut of criminal activities, including violations of immigration law, among others," she said.

"Our embassies are consistently engaged with local governments to facilitate our prisoners," she said, adding that in the last few years, embassies held over 13,000 consular access meetings in various countries to assist Pakistani prisoners.

As a result of these efforts, in the last one year alone over 4,637 prisoners have been released, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Farooqui said Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum was on the cards and details would be shared in due course of time.

The WEF 2020 is scheduled to be held in the Swiss city of Davos from January 21 to 24.

She said Pakistan was expecting US senior official Alice Wells to visit Islamabad but refused to provide the dates.

"We expect to have discussions in foreign office and other ministries as well on various bilateral issues that are presently on agenda," she said.

She said US Afghan Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was also expected to visit to Pakistan.