No End In Sight
Sarabjit Singh, jailed in Pakistan, files fifth clemency plea
On May 29. Indian national Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Pakistani jail, filed his fifth clemency appeal to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari. “I have spent 22 years in prison for a crime I have not committed,” said Sarabjit in his petition. The 49- year- old was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in a bomb blast case in Lahore in 1990.
The fifth petition, signed by one lakh people, urges Zardari to free Sarabjit on humanitarian grounds. The petition also carries letters from two prominent Indian Muslim clerics— Delhi’s Jama Masjid imam Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari, and caretaker of the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Syed Muhammad Yamin Hashmi— addressed to the Pakistan president. “Sarabjit’s release will help in promoting goodwill and communal harmony between the two countries,” Bukhari says in the letter.
Sarabjit’s plea comes days after India’s Supreme Court allowed 82year- old Pakistani microbiologist Khalil Chisti to return to his country
“I HAVE SPENT 22 YEARS IN THE PRISON FOR A CRIME I HAVE NOT COMMITTED.”
Sarabjit Singh in his petition
on humanitarian grounds. Chisti was released on bail after Zardari wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in April. Following high- level diplomatic talks, Chisti walked free from Ajmer Central Jail.
Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju also sent three appeals to Zardari for granting Sarabjit pardon, but there has been no response from him. Katju also wrote to former Pakistani senator Syed Faseih Iqbal, urging him to take up the Sarabjit’s case. On May 27, Iqbal agreed to help mobilise public opinion in his favour.
With fresh support pouring in from both sides of the border, it is to be seen whether Zardari will reciprocate India’s Chisti gesture by releasing Sarabjit.