New Delhi, June 24: Pakistan Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh’s review petition challenging his death sentence in the 1990 Lahore bomb blast case.
The petition was rejected by a three -member bench led by Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed on the grounds of non-pursuance of the case by his lawyer. The court also upheld the death sentence awarded to him by an anti-terrorism court in 1991.
Sarabjit’s lawyer Rana Abdul Hamid was not present on Wednesday despite a directive to him. The lawyer was also absent for the last hearing on Monday.
In fact Hamid has been appointed Advocate General of Punjab province and it is not clear if he can also represent Sarabjit while holding that office.
Sources told CNN-IBN that Lahore Jammat-ud Dawa (Lashkar-e-Toiba front) leaders forced Sarbajit’s lawyer to not attend the court.
But Hamid told CNN-IBN that he would file another appeal on Sarabjit’s behalf.
“I was not authorised to appear as I was appointed to the Punjab government. So I asked my friend to appear in the Supreme Court on my behalf. But he was busy. Today I have been de-notified so I can file an application in the court and appeal,” said Hamid
“I am not under pressure,” he replied when asked is he was forced to abstain from the hearing.
Sarabjit’s family has been claiming that he was innocent saying he strayed into Pakistani territory in a drunken state in 1990.
His wife Sukhpreet Kaur appealed to the Indian government to put pressure on Pakistan for releasing Sarabjit.
“I appeal to Indian and Pakistani governments that my husband is innocent. The time he spent in Pak surpasses life sentence. This delay is torturing us. If India puts pressure, he can be saved. Indian government should not remain quiet,” appealed Sukhpreet.
Meanwhile, DawnNews Correspondent Kamran Yuasaf told CNN-IBN the only option left for Sarabjit was to wait for the Pakistani government to take a decision.
“In the last hearing his lawyer was not present in the court. Supreme Court directed that his lawyer should be present in the next hearing. Today (Wednesday) his lawyer again was not present. That prompted the Supreme Court bench to reject Sarabjit’s three-pointer review petition. Sarabjit was arrested in 1990,” said Yuasaf.
He was convicted of espionage and terrorism and his mercy petition was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier. Now the review petition has also been rejected by the SC. Sarabjit has absolutely no option left except to wait for his execution. So its upto the Pakistani government now to handle this issue because the court has reject is release petition,” he added.
Lawyer Majid Memon, however, claimed that there some options still left for Sarabjit.
“We have to see how his case was presented in the Supreme Court. I have reports that his lawyer were not given enough time to present the case. If that is the case then it is very unfortunate that lawyer of Sarabjit was not allowed to put up his client’s case. If this is true this needs to be corrected,” said Memon
“The system in our country is very similar to that of Pakistan. If the Supreme Court of Pakistan has rejected the mercy petition of Sarabjit … Pakistani President can consider weather his plea has any substance or not. His next recourse is to make a representation to the Pakistani President,” he pointed out.
–Agencies