Sarabjit gets second reprieve, hanging put off

Just two days away from being hanged, Sarabjit Singh today got a second brief reprieve with his execution put off by at least a fortnight.

Just two days away from being hanged, Sarabjit Singh today got a second brief reprieve with his execution put off by at least a fortnight.

There was a “procedural postponement” of Sarabjit’s execution by the Home Department of Punjab province, officials were quoted as saying by Dawn News channel.

While Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur, currently in Lahore with his wife Sukhpreet Kaur and daughters Swapandeep and Poonam, said the family was elated to hear of the postponement, Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq and presidential spokesman Maj Gen (retired) Rashid Qureshi told PTI that they had no word on this development.

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Hopes that Sarabjit may survive the gallows got a further boost on Monday when former premier Nawaz Sharif asked the Pakistan Government not to hang him on humanitarian grounds.

Sharif, whose party is a key player in the ruling coalition, however, did not favour an unconditional pardon for Sarabjit. Speaking to TV news channels, he said Sarabjit should be released on the condition that he would be sent back to Pakistan if concrete evidence is found against him.

“After seeing the plight of the members of Sarabjit’s family who have come to Pakistan, any person can feel the pain they are going through,” Sharif said. “But if this individual (Sarabjit) has actually carried out terrorist attacks, then no person can easily ignore that.”

In an interview with the Aaj news channel, Sharif also suggested that any review of Sarabjit’s case should be linked to similar action by the Indian Government in the cases of Pakistanis currently being held by it.

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Sarabjit, 42, sentenced to death for allegedly carrying out four bomb attacks in 1990 in Lahore and Multan, was due to be hanged on May 1 after the expiry of a 30-day stay of his death sentence granted by President Pervez Musharraf in March.

According to existing rules, Sarabjit’s case has to be put once again before a local court for fixing a fresh date for the execution, Dawn News channel quoted officials as saying. Under these rules, this fresh date of execution cannot be fixed before a period of 14 days or after 21 days.

This means that the execution may be postponed by up to three weeks, the officials said. They added the decision was largely a “procedural matter”.

Qureshi reiterated that Sarabjit’s case was not pending with the presidency, and that it would act on the Prime Minister’s Secretariat’s recommendations in the matter.