*ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has taken an important decision over release of Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari.*
*Hamid Ansari jail term will end on December 15, but he will not be able to leave for his country immediately as the Peshawar High Court has granted the government a month to **complete his repatriation process.*
A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Roohul Amin and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan, on Thursday heard an appeal filed by Ansari through a senior lawyer. The petition said that the federal government hasn’t taken any steps for his release. Ansari’s lawyer said that his client’s prison term will end on December 15 and he should be released on the morning of December 16.
Ansari was tried in a military court and was awarded three years’ imprisonment on December 15, 2015. Ansari was arrested in Pakistan in 2012 with a fake Pakistani identity card. He had crossed the border to meet a girl he met online.
On December 11, the bench had directed the interior ministry officials to appear before the court and explain in detail Ansari’s release and safe return to India.