Hope for Sarabjit: Pak Govt asks Musharraf to commute death terms

The Pakistan Government has forwarded a proposal to commute all death penalties into life imprisonment to President Pervez Musharraf...

The Pakistan Government has forwarded a proposal to commute all death penalties into life imprisonment to President Pervez Musharraf, but a decision is yet to be taken on these cases, including that of Indian national Sarabjit Singh.

Rehman Malik, advisor to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani on interior affairs, said here on Saturday that a “summary” or official communication on commuting the death penalties to life sentences had been sent to the President.

However, the presidency has not yet made a final decision regarding the case of convicted persons like Sarabjit, he said after visiting the local headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency that was attacked by two suicide bombers.

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Sarabjit’s execution was deferred for 30 days by President Pervez Musharraf last month so that Pakistan’s new Government could review his case following an appeal for clemency from the Indian Government. He was originally set to be hanged on April 1.

He was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in four bomb attacks in Punjab province in 1990 that killed 14 people.

Sarabjit, currently being held in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, on Saturday made a special request to the Pakistani authorities to allow him to meet his daughter Poonam whom he has never seen.

Sarabjit conveyed the request when officials of the Indian High Commission met him at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. Sarabjit’s daughters Swapandeep and Poonam and wife Sukhpreet Kaur are coming to Pakistan on April 23.

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India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday made a fresh appeal to the Pakistan Government to grant clemency to Sarabjit. There has not been any official response from Islamabad to the appeal.