ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said on Wednesday it was up to President Pervez Musharraf to decide whether to pardon an Indian man facing execution for spying and involvement in bomb attacks. He said he discussed the issue with president on Tuesday.
“As far as clemency is concerned, it’s in nobody’s hands. It has to go to the president of Pakistan,” he told reporters. “If a mercy petition comes, then the president will decide on merit.”
Talking to newsmen about the claims of “mistaken identity” by the family of Sarabjit Singh, the minister said he could not comment on it.
“He has been tried here for fifteen years by a trial court, high court and in the Supreme Court and all the three courts awarded death sentence to him,” Mr Kasuri added.
The minister recalled that capital punishment still existed both in Pakistan and India and such mercy petitions were always made to the presidents.
Commenting on reports by some Indian channels quoting his family members on Sarabjit Singh’s health, the minister said a high official of the foreign office contacted the Kot Lakhpat jail authority on Wednesday and was told that the prisoner was in good health.
“It is a humanitarian issue and even condemned prisoners have their rights,” he added.
OTHER PRISONERS: About other prisoners in both countries, the minister called for softening of procedure by Pakistan and India to address on humanitarian grounds the issue of their early release. “Both the governments should soften the procedure and make it more humanise, it is a very lengthy procedure,” he said when asked to comment on reports on the plight of hundreds of prisoners held by the two countries, after a ground-breaking ceremony of new foreign office building.
The minister said he raised this issue at almost every meeting he held with his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh during the last two years.
He particularly mentioned the cumbersome identification process — from the interior ministry to provincial governments down to district governments — which extended to months and even years.
Mr Kasuri said if needed he would even speak to the prime minister on the issue but stressed that both the governments would have to do something to change the procedure.
The minister said in the absence of any interaction between the two countries, such matters could not be addressed in the past.
“But things are now changing, a dialogue is going on and we should look at this issue on humanitarian grounds,” he added.
The minister also called on the human rights organisations in the two countries to take special interests in addressing the issue of prisoners’ plight.—Agencies
