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Subcontinental peace hangs by a rope, but Pakistan says it won’t
pull lever till April 30
WSN Bureau
 ISLAMABAD
/ NEW DELHI: FOR MORE than two decades, this Sikh man has been
languishing in Pakistan prisons, confined in a solitary cell,
waiting on the death row, and suffering what few realize: he is
being told he is someone else.
Pakistan has told
Sarabjit Singh that he is Manjit Singh who carried out bomb blasts
in 1989 and therefore must hang to death. President Pervez
Musharraf, who has often taken pride in being the harbinger of a
spirit of bonhomie between the two Punjabs, signed his death
warrants on March 3 by rejecting his final mercy petition and said
he should be hanged on April 1.
As Punjabis rose as a man to raise hue and cry and forced the
Indian officialdom to act, and Sarabjit’s never-say-die spirited
sister Dalbir Kaur led the family’s campaign to generate support and
bring intense media focus on the fate of a man who simple went
astray a few yards across the border as many did in those days,
Pakistan has now said it is doing nothing till at least April 30.
 That has bought some time for India to leverage support and
talk, pressurise, cajole or jolt Pakistan out of taking a life that
will mean little for Sarabjit except death and will be a tragedy for
his family but, if spared, will act as a major confidence building
booster and lead to better understanding between two peoples divided
by shared history and twisted subcontinental geography.
Islamabad has
maintained consistently that Sarabjit Singh is, in fact, Manjit
Singh and carried out bomb blasts at the behest of Indian
intelligence agencies, killing many. His wife, sister, daughters,
and now a country of a billion people, are saying Sarabjit Singh is
just an innocent fellow caught in the crosshairs of subcontinental
politics of divisiveness.
Just days ago, Pakistan released Kashmir Singh after keeping
him on a death row for 35 years, and the move had led to much
goodwill and a spirit of bonhomie. But all that was to be shortlived
as hangman’s shadow loomed large over the life languishing in the
Kot Lakhpat jail.
It was ironical that at a time when human bombs are blowing
up headquarters of
Pakistan’s federal
intelligence agency, killing and maiming people by the dozens, the
country’s northwest region is in turmoil, its nascent democracy
being born amid fragile political understandings and conflict
written into the system, the top preference billing has gone to
hanging Sarabjit Singh.
It isn’t any different on the other side of the Radcliffe
line. Sarabjit’s death warrants came soon after a Pakistani national
died in shady circumstances in a
Delhi
hospital. Islamabad has accused India of torturing and killing the
man.
 Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur worked many channels. She has
met Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Pranab Mukerjee and every single
person she thought could help. As a result,
New Delhi formally
approached Islamabad regarding clemency for Sarabjit Singh. Every
single day hope was being built up, and then vanished. As more
crosses appear on the calendar, Sarabjit and his family members die
many deaths everyday.
They have said if something happens to Sarabjit, they will
hang themselves. That may not be necessary. If something happens to
Sarabjit, something in the people to people relations between
India and Pakistan
will also die, and it will be difficult to resurrect.
Dalbir Kaur has sent an appeal for clemency directly to
President Musharraf and has also requested him for permission to
visit
Pakistan to meet her brother in jail.
Sarabjit was sentenced to death in 1991 for his alleged
involvement in four bomb blasts in
Lahore and Multan
that killed 14 people, something the family denies.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told Punjab CM Parkash
Singh Badal that the government has taken up Sarabjit’s case with
the Pakistan
government at the highest levels. Indian Parliament this week heard
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee appealing to
Pakistan
for “clemency on humanitarian grounds”.
Sarabjit’s lawyer Abdul Hameed Rana said Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf could still pardon his client, but it will help if
India
reciprocates the move and releases all such Pakistani prisoners.
A legal expert, Dr Babar Awan, perhaps summed it best in
Islamabad:
“His hope lies in mercy petitions and verbal appeals. I do not know
where destiny will drive him, but I am sure he deserves treatment at
par and consistency in application of mind.”
Mind is
something regimes often do not have, or they would not stake a
prospect as huge as peace and harmony between two divided people on
the life of one man and a piece of rope. Not many leaders have
become men of destiny by turning into hangmen. Musharraf, Sharif and
Zardari must find different ways of rising to the challenge than
rushing to pull the hangman’s lever.
19
March 2008
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