Indian Advocates To Rally To Restore Pak Judiciary

New Delhi, May 27 (UNI) As many as 70 to 80 Indian inmates are in a Lahore prison and some twenty of them were provided lawyers by an inter-faith human rights group, its members reported in New Delhi today.

''We arranged to provide advocates for twenty of them,'' Mehnaz Atta Chaudhary, head of the women's wing of Pakistan's International Commission of Human Rights told journalists at Punjab Bhavan.

Another member of the Lahore-based ICHR, Sargodha district president Javed Iqbal Tiwana, afterwards said the advocates were provided based on requests received, not by selection.

Delegates said the Indian inmates in Kotlakhpat jail in Lahore were also given Rs two lakh worth of foodstuffs, garments and other essentials.

Asked details of the inmates detention, the delegation members sid they did not readily hve such information.

The event organised by All India Bar Association was addressed by the nine-member ICHR delegation also including vice chairman Nasir M Ali, organiser Hafiz Liaqat Ali Zia and a Hindu member, Sunita Chand Malhotra.

At the outset, Association chairman Adish C Aggarwala urged Pakistan to reinstate 60 plus senior judges deposed last year.

Aggarwala said he would lead an Indian contingent to join a lawyers' rally in Islamabad on June 10 and was in touch with Pakistani authorities over formalities.

Ms Atta declined to take questions on Sarabjit Singh, an Indian on death row in Pakistani jail on charges of spying, saying she has ''no comment.'' ''Iss topic ko na hi cheda jai to behtar hai (better not raise this subject),'' she told a persistent questioner.

The delegation earlier included six more members-- four Sikhs and two Christians-- who returned to keep other engagements, Tiwana said.

The delegation visited Amritsar but were unable to meet 35 Pakistanis they believed were lodged in jail there.

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