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I have advised Musharraf to stop execution: Gillani

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani believes that Sarabjit Singh, Indian national on death row, should be pardoned and has asked President Pervez Musharraf to review his case.

Mr. Gillani said his personal beliefs in the matter were the reason why he recently wrote to the retired General, Musharraf, urging him to stop the execution.

“I have advised the President that he should stop [Sarabjit’s] execution and it should be reviewed by the Ministries of Interior, Foreign affairs, Law and Justice and Human Rights,” Mr. Gillani told Karan Thapar in the TV programme ‘Devil’s Advocate.’

This was the reason why recently Sarabjit’s execution was put off, he said. Asked whether he believed that Sarabjit should be pardoned, Mr. Gillani, who spent several years in jail after arrest on charges that he illegally gave jobs to people during his tenure as Speaker of the National Assembly, said: “That is the reason [why] I have advised the President. Now it’s up to the ministries to take a decision.”

To a question whether he had sought a review for granting pardon to Sarabjit, Mr. Gillani said: “They [the ministries] will think on those lines. They will consider whether the case is fit or whether the case is not fit and they will take a decision.”

Sarabjit was originally set to be hanged on April 1, but his execution was initially deferred for 30 days by General Musharraf. This was done so that the new government led by Mr. Gillani could review his case following India’s clemency appeal. At Mr. Gillani’s intervention, the execution has been put off “till further orders.”

Sarabjit was sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in four bomb attacks in Lahore that killed 14 persons in 1990. His family insists that he is innocent and was wrongly convicted. — PTI

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