LAHORE: Zulfiqar Ali, a Pakistani citizen on death row for 15 years, dies of liver cancer at an Indonesian hospital, says Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), an organisation working for the rights of prisoners.

Ali, 54, has left behind a wife, five children and a mother who reside in Lahore.

In a statement, the JPP states that Ali’s innocence had been confirmed by a 2010 Indonesian government inquiry that investigated his case after reports of violations during his arrest, detention, trial and sentencing came to light.

Prof Hafiz Abbas, one of the members of the inquiry team who authored the report, publicly confirmed his innocence, it says, adding that the fact of Ali’s innocence was ignored by both governments for eight years.

The JPP sees the death of Ali as an evidence of the dangers of government inaction to protect its most vulnerable citizens abroad.

It regrets that despite President Joko Widodo’s assurances to Pakistan’s prime minister to reconsider Ali’s case on humanitarian grounds in January this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs failed to make forceful representations on his behalf.

JPP Executive Director Sarah Belal states that Zulfiqar Ali’s passing is a senseless tragedy that could have been prevented by timely intervention by our foreign office. She says an innocent Pakistani wrongfully convicted has lost his life, away from his family and his homeland.

She says fundamental responsibility of our government is to protect the lives of its citizens, at home and abroad. It is shameful that despite repeated requests from his lawyers, our foreign office failed to mobilise to hold the Indonesian president to his commitment to our head of state and to the people of Pakistan, she adds.

The father of five was detained for nearly 14 years for a wrongful conviction. He was arrested in November 2004 after his flatmate was caught with 300 grams of heroin in Jakarta, a city that he wasn’t even in at the time. To review his sentence, the former president of Indonesia had commissioned an inquiry in 2010 which had found Ali to be innocent. Nonetheless, in July 2016, warrants for his execution by firing squad were issued.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2018