Pakistan said it has not received any official communication from the Indian government seeking clemency for its national Sarabjit Singh.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday said it has not received any official communication from the Indian government seeking clemency for its national Sarabjit Singh who will be hanged on April one for his alleged involvement in terrorist attacks in the country.
Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said there has not been any official contact by the Indian government on the issue of clemency for Sarabjit, who is set to be executed following the rejection of his mercy petition by President Pervez Musharraf.
"As far as I know his hanging is fixed for April 1. We have not received any official communication (from India) in this regard," he said when asked at a weekly news briefing if the Indian government had submitted any plea on Sarabjit's behalf.
However, sources said the Indian government had not yet received any official confirmation from Pakistani authorities about Sarabjit's execution.
The Pakistan government is also yet to respond to the Indian High Commission's request for consular access to Sarabjit to confirm the reports that he is to be hanged, the sources told PTI.
"There are only media reports that Sarabjit is to be hanged and consular access had been sought to confirm these reports," a source said.
Sarabjit was sentenced to death in 1991 for his alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed 14 people.
His family denies he was a spy as claimed by Pakistan and insists he accidentally strayed into Pakistani territory.
The mercy petition of Sarabjit, who Pakistan claims is Manjit Singh, was rejected by Musharraf on March 3.
Sarabjit's mercy petition was sent to Musharraf along with that of Indian prisoner Kashmir Singh, who was pardoned and freed after spending 35 years on death row in Pakistani jails.
Pakistan's Supreme Court too rejected Sarabjit's plea for clemency in March 2006.
Caretaker Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney, who played a key role in Kashmir Singh's release, said yesterday that he would not submit any petition in support of Sarabjit because his case was different as he had been "charged with terrorism".
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