Relief for Sarabjit, Pakistan defers hanging again

April 19th, 2008 Sana · No Comments

WITH THE final date of death sentence of Indian prisoner in Pakistan, Sarabjit Singh, nearing on May 1, the Pak government has deferred his sentence again.

This seems to be the result of the efforts made by different quarters, especially the relatives of Singh, besides functionaries of the UPA government and senior leaders of various political parties, but that doesn’t mean he has been granted clemency.

According to a television report, Singh’s hanging has been deferred by a month and it has been done under the purview of a Pakistani law that allows the President of that country to give a death convict three one-month extensions.

Here it may be recalled that with Singh’s execution date nearing, India today made a fresh appeal to Pakistan to show mercy to the unfortunate human being on humanitarian grounds.

India’s external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, hoped clemency would be shown to Singh who has been in a Pakistani jail since 1990. “I would appeal to the authorities in Pakistan to show clemency to Singh, as the date of hanging of the Indian national drew nearer,” the minister said. However, leading Pakistani human rights activist, Ansar Burney, who is in picture these days, has said that he would file a fresh appeal seeking clemency for Indian national Singh, sentenced to death for alleged involvement in the 1990 blasts in Lahore and Multan, as there were several loopholes in his conviction.

He said, “I will now file a fresh appeal with President Pervez Musharraf giving all this evidence.”
While referring to the evidence gathered by him, Burney pointed out that Singh’s name didn’t figure in any of the four FIRs registered by police in connection with the bomb attacks that killed 14 people in Punjab province.

Regarding other lapses, he said, “The identification parade in which Singh was identified was conducted in a police station and not before a magistrate. The evidence in all four FIRs was recorded by one magistrate and not by different magistrates.”

Burney opined that he would raise all these issues in his fresh appeal to be sent to the President Musharraf.