Islamabad (PTI): In a move that could benefit Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney on Thursday asked President Pervez Musharraf to convert all death sentences in the country to life imprisonment.

In a letter written to Musharraf, Burney drew the President's attention to "the suffering of thousands of condemned prisoners languishing in Pakistani jails and facing the worst human rights violations".

"This is an issue on which we have spoken several times during our meetings and an issue on which I have already sent several appeals," the former human rights minister said.

"In the greater interest of human rights and morality, I would like to request you once again that you please reconsider my previous appeals and take action to end the suffering of these human beings," he said.

"I request that all death sentences in the country be halted; and all condemned prisoners have their death sentences converted into life imprisonment in the very greater interest of justice, humanity and human rights as 60 to 65 percent of them are innocent."

Though Sarabjit's case was not specifically mentioned in the letter, Burney has been at the forefront of efforts to seek clemency for the Indian national who was sentenced to death for alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990.

Sarabjit's execution was recently put off indefinitely by the Pakistan government. His family insists he accidentally crossed the border in an inebriated condition and was not involved in spying or terrorist activities as claimed by the Pakistani authorities.