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Pak remission not to benefit
Sarabjit, case still hanging
WSN Bureau
 Islamabad:
After raising hopes all around about Pakistan Government commuting
the death sentences of death row convict Sarabjit Singh comes the
dampener: the proposal to commute death sentences will not apply to
Sarabjit since he has been convicted on a terrorism count.
Pakistan media,
reacting to the euphoria in India and Indian media, carried many
reports quting internal ministry officials to say that the remission
would not be applicable to Sarabjit as he has been convicted on
charges of terrorism and espionage.
Pakistan Prime
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has announced that he will be asking
President Pervez Musharraf to commute death sentences to life
imprisonment. Earlier, Gilani had announced in Parliament on the
birth anniversary of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto on June 21
that the interior ministry would be asked to move a proposal to the
President to commute the sentences of all prisoners on death row to
life imprisonment.
Even the grant
of remission of 90 days to prisoners would not apply to "those
involved in heinous crime," the ministry said.
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Badals rush to claim credit where none due
Trust the
shenanigans of
Punjab
politicians to continue even in the most sensitive cases. As
soon as the first news about Pakistan commuting the death row
sentences hit headlines, spin masters of Akali Dal supremo
Badals were on the job. While one press release was fired in
which Bikram Singh Majithia, Patron Youth Akali Dal and Minister
"thanked Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal for getting the death
sentence of two Punjabis in Pakistan Jails, Sarbjit Singh and
Kirpal Singh, commuted to life imprisonment."
He
remembered something no one else had known. "Citizens of this
country would remember the missionary role played by Parkash
Singh Badal in getting two Punjabis Sarabjit and Kirpal back
from gallows."
Another
press release issued by the Chief Minister Office,
Punjab, said
Badal has "welcomed the gesture of the Pakistan Government" and
was quick to "place on record his gratitude for the efforts made
by the Government of India, especially the Prime Minister Dr.
Manmohan Singh".
So quick was
the young Sukhbir Singh Badal that he even "conveyed his
felicitations and good wishes to the families of Sarabjit Singh
and Karpal Singh". |
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Sarabjit was
sentenced to death for alleged involvement in four bomb attacks that
killed 14 people in 1990, was not likely to benefit from the
proposed remission. It is known that senior officials in Pakistan
are now working to find a way to send Sarabjit back to India in
exchange for Pakistani prisoners detained in Indian jails and
retired judge Nasir Aslam Zahid has been assigned the task of
"drafting a charter of demands to be presented to Indian
authorities, proposing the possible exchange of Pakistani prisoners
in India in exchange of Sarabjit."
Sarabjit's
family insists that he is innocent and was wrongly convicted for the
bomb attacks. His family also denies that Sarabjit is a spy named
Manjit Singh as claimed by Pakistani authorities, and maintains that
he accidentally strayed into Pakistani territory in an inebriated
condition.
25
June, 2008
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