Sarabjit gets second reprieve two days before hanging

ISLAMABAD: Just two days away from being hanged, Indian national Sarabjit Singh got a second brief reprieve on Monday after Pakistani authorities put off his execution for upto three weeks.
     
There was a "procedural postponement" of Sarabjit's execution by the home department of Punjab province, officials said.
     
Sarabjit, 42, sentenced to death for allegedly carrying out four bomb attacks in 1990 in Lahore and Multan, was due to be hanged on May 1 after the expiry of a 30-day stay of his death sentence granted by President Pervez Musharraf in March.
     
According to existing rules, Sarabjit's case has to be put once again before a local court for fixing a fresh date for the execution, Dawn News channel quoted the unnamed officials as saying.
     
Under these rules, this fresh date of execution cannot be fixed before a period of 14 days or after 21 days.
     
This means that the execution will be postponed for up to three weeks, the officials said. They added the decision was largely a "procedural matter".
     
Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq and presidential spokesman Maj Gen (retired) Rashid Qureshi said that they had no word on this development.
    
Qureshi reiterated that Sarabjit's case was not pending with the presidency, which would act on the Prime Minister's Secretariat's recommendations in the matter.
     
Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur, currently in Lahore with his wife Sukhpreet Kaur and his daughters Swapandeep and Poonam, said the family was elated to hear of the postponement.
   
"We are all very happy," she said.