The Hindu : Front Page : Sarabjit’s petitions dismissed

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Sarabjit’s petitions dismissed

Nirupama Subramanian

But lawyer is confident of filing restoration petition in Pakistan’s Supreme Court

Photo: By Special Arrangement

PLEA FOR HELP: Sukhpreet Kaur, wife of Sarabjit Singh, updates herself in Amritsar on Wednesday, on her husband’s case in Pakistan. She requested the Centre to work with Pakistan to secure his release. She said he was innocent and it was a case of mistaken identity. —

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed three review petitions challenging the death sentence awarded to Sarabjit Singh, but the lawyer for the Indian, who was convicted of carrying out terrorist acts on Pakistani soil, was confident of having the matter taken up again through a restoration petition.

The Supreme Court dismissed the review petitions after the lawyer, Rana Abdul Hamid, failed to appear in the case. At the last hearing on Monday, Justice Rana Fayyaz Ahmed issued notice to the lawyer to appear in the case.

Mr. Hamid told The Hindu he could not appear in court to argue the petitions after his government appointment two years ago as the Additional Advocate-General of Punjab province.

But this job, he said, ended on Wednesday, by some curious coincidence on the same day as the Supreme Court dismissal of the review petitions.

Sarabjit Singh

“Till today, I was notified as the Additional Advocate-General. But my job ends today, Now I am free to take up the case again,” he said.

“It is my information that the petitions were dismissed by default, for non-prosecution. I will file a restoration petition in the court. I have already applied for a certified copy of today’s decision, and when I get that I will be filing the petition.”

Mr. Hamid had filed four review petitions against the 2005 Supreme Court decision upholding the Lahore High Court death sentence to Sarabjit in four separate cases of terrorism. One petition was dismissed in 2006 and the remaining on Wednesday. In any case, the legal twists and turns of the case may no longer have a bearing on his fate. Last year, the government decided to indefinitely postpone implementing his death sentence, and there is no indication that this position has changed. The 43-year-old Sarabjit’s other hope is pinned on the government’s plan to commute all death sentences to life imprisonment to benefit an estimated 7,000 death row prisoners, including himself, but there appears to have been no movement since it was announced last year.

Sarabjit was arrested and convicted in 1990 of carrying out four different bombings across Punjab in which 14 people were killed and more than 80 injured. His family claims he was wrongly convicted. The fate of Sarabjit, languishing on death row in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, has see-sawed between life and death over the last few years as India lobbied through diplomatic channels for his release.

Previous reports

India reiterates request for Sarabjit’s release

We do not want Sarabjit in exchange for terrorists: wife

Editorial: Clemency for Sarabjit

No Indian pressure to free Sarabjit: Pakistan

Sarabjit’s execution put off indefinitely

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