Sartaj Aziz, main advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on national security and foreign affairs, told AFP today that Baradar "will be released this week, possibly in a day or two".
The Afghan government has long demanded that Islamabad free Baradar, whose arrest in January 2010 saw Pakistan accused of sabotaging initiatives to bring peace in war-torn Afghanistan.
His release would bring to 34 the number of Taliban detainees that Pakistan has released since last year, in what Afghan officials hope will encourage peace talks with the insurgents.
"It is at his (Baradar's) discretion, whether he chooses to live here or anywhere of his own choice," Aziz said.
More From This Section
"Handing him over to Kabul would affect the reconciliation process with the Taliban," he added.
Aziz did not say if Baradar had expressed where he would want to go. "We have to follow the Taliban's desires and we would carry out (his release) in accordance with what they want," he said.
Aziz had announced last week that Pakistan would set Baradar free this month.
He spoke a few weeks after Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Pakistan for talks with new prime minister Sharif.
There has been little evidence that the releases have had a positive effect on the stalled peace negotiations, however, and several prisoners are understood to have returned to the battlefield.
Baradar's influence has also been debated after his years away from the fight.
Born in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, Baradar fought in the war -- covertly backed by the United States and Pakistan -- to expel Soviet troops from Afghanistan in the 1980s.
After the Taliban government was toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001, hundreds of Taliban hardliners are believed to have fled over the border to Pakistan.