November 4, 2002	Monday	Sha’aban 28,1423

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QUETTA, Nov 3: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Balochistan chapter, and mother of Aimal Kasi, have appealed to the US President George. W. Bush to commute the death penalty awarded to Aimal into life imprisonment.

The council of the HRCP, Balochistan chapter, made this appeal in a mercy petition sent to the US President and Governor of Virginia State.

In the mercy petition, President Gorge W. Bush and the state governor, the HRCP states: “Kindly reconsider the death sentence awarded to a citizen of Pakistan and a residence of Quetta, Aimal Kasi, and commute it into life imprisonment, or any other term.”

The petition said the human rights activists, tribesmen, and the citizen of Quetta have approached the HRCP and requested it for sending a mercy petition to US president and governor Arkansas state to get the sentence of Aimal Kasi remitted.

“We believe President Bush would reconsider the death sentence and change it into any other term,” the petition reads.

Meanwhile, the Vice-Chairperson HRCP, Balochistan chapter, Malik Zahoor Ahmed Shahwani, also appealed to the international human rights organizations to use their influence for converting the death sentence into life imprisonment.

Separately, the mother of Aimal also appealed to President Bush for mercy.

It may be recalled here that Amal Kasi had been convicted and awarded death sentence by a US court in June 1997 for killing two CIA men in February 1992.

The US president had already rejected his mercy petition and Nov 14 had been fixed for his execution.

The FBI men arrested him from a hotel in Dera Ghazi Khan with the help of Pakistani authorities.