Sarabjit`s lawyer asks Pak Prez to pardon him

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Jun 27 (PTI) Indian death row prisoner
Sarabjit Singh's counsel Saturday appealed to Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari to either pardon him or commute his
death sentence to life imprisonment, three days after the
Supreme court dismissed his appeal against the capital
punishment.
Rana Abdul Hamid, the lawyer representing Sarabjit, said
the President should act on several mercy petitions that were
pending with him.
"We filed a mercy petition in 2006. There are also
appeals from the Indian government, Sarabjit's family and
other persons," Hamid told PTI.
Hamid did not appear during the two recent hearings in
the Supreme Court of Sarabjit's review petition challenging
his death sentence handed out to him in 1991 for alleged
involvement in four blasts in Pakistan as the lawyer was
working as an Additional Advocate General of Punjab province
till June 26.
A three-member bench of the apex court on June 24
dismissed the review petition and upheld Sarabjit's death
sentence after Hamid failed to appear in court. The judges
also said they studied the case and found "no ground" to
review the death sentence.
Hamid said his job as the Additional Advocate General had
ended and he was again representing Sarabjit.
Rights activists campaigning on behalf of Sarabjit have
said any positive development in his case would strengthen
relations between India and Pakistan.
Leading rights activist Ansar Burney, who has often asked
the government to pardon Sarabjit, condemned the apex court's
decision to dismiss Sarabjit's review petition. He also
questioned why the apex court had issued a verdict even though
Sarabjit was not represented at the hearings by his lawyer.
Burney too has appealed to the President to show clemency
to Sarabjit, who has been on death row since he was convicted
for alleged involvement in the 1990 blasts that killed 14
people.
Sarabjit's family insists that he was wrongly convicted
for the bombings. PTI