Encouraged by Islamabad's goodwill gesture of releasing Indian prisoner Gopal Dass in March before completion of his sentence, the family of 80-year-old Saiyyad Mohammed Khaleel Chishty — jailed in a Rajasthan prison since 1992 — has urged the Pakistan government to intervene on its behalf with India to secure his release.
Pointing out that the lack of jurisdiction over Pakistan had not prevented the Supreme Court of India from appealing to the Pakistan government to release Gopal Dass, Dr. Chishty's family wrote to President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani last week urging them to request their Indian counterparts to remit his sentence.
“I am very optimistic that the President and the Prime Minister of India would not ignore your appeal/request and will reciprocate your very humanitarian and generous gesture of releasing and repatriating the Indian prisoner Gopal Dass,” Dr. Chishty's daughter Shoa Jawaid wrote in the letter to Mr. Zardari and Mr. Gilani.
Given Dr. Chishty's failing health, the family's only desire is to see him return to Pakistan so that he can fulfil with his desire of spending his last days with his family. According to his daughter, Dr. Chishty was wrongly implicated in a family feud while on a visit to Ajmer to meet his mother, who was living there with another son.
Rioting case
The case of rioting registered against him had been pending for 19 years. In 2010, he was convicted under Section 302 and sentenced for 14 years.
A heart patient with an unhealed hip fracture, Dr. Chishty is now admitted to a prison hospital.
In March this year, ahead of the World Cup cricket semi-final match between India and Pakistan, Mr. Zardari had pardoned Gopal Dass “to honour'' the Indian Supreme Court's appeal earlier in the month to consider granting remission to him on humanitarian grounds.
A two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court made this appeal while disposing of a writ petition filed in 2008 by Dass through his brother.
