ISLAMABAD, March 17: Caretaker Minister for Human Rights Ansar Burney has said his ministry does not plan to submit a mercy petition for Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national condemned to death for his alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990.

The death of Sarabjit Singh had already been issued and he was likely to be hanged early next month.

Mr Burney, who played a key role in getting Indian spy Kashmir Singh released and repatriated to India, said that the case of Sarabjit Singh was different because he had been convicted of terrorism. Mr Burney said that he had supported the release of Kashmir Singh because he had completed the sentence for his crime.

He said he was disappointed by the reaction of the extremist lobby to the release of Kashmir Singh.

Mr Burney said he had filed a petition to the president because Kashmir Singh had already spent 35 years in a death cell, over two life sentences. After spending such a long time in a death cell, which was far worse than a normal prison cell, it was against Pakistani law and Islamic teachings to hang him.

He said that the admission by Kashmir Singh that he was a spy was not surprising and it only proved that he had been rightly charged and sentenced in Pakistan. Had he said that he was innocent, it would have been an embarrassment for Pakistan, Mr Burney added.

He said the Ministry of Human Rights had also been helping prisoners who had completed their jail terms but was still behind bars because they could not pay fines. One such prisoner released from a prison in Balochistan had completed his jail term nearly eight years ago, but he remained behind bars because he could not pay his fine. The ministry had also arranged for the release of 550 Afghan children from a prison in Balochistan.

The ministry has also secured the release of several innocent prisoners.