Lahore court lets lawyer meet Sarabjit

The Lahore high court on Tuesday allowed Awais Sheikh, a Pakistani lawyer representing Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, to meet his client.

The advocate had filed a petition that the Kot Lakhpat jail authorities had denied him access to his client.

The prison superintendent told justice Ijaz Chaudhry that since Sarabjit was a condemned prisoner, there was no point in allowing him access.

Sarabjit’s lawyer said he wanted to show him a petition, signed by 100,000 Indians, that urged the Pakistani government to pardon him. Sarabjit was eager to know about his family, he said. The lawyer had recently met Sarabjit’s family in India.

Sarabjit was sentenced to death by Lahore’s anti-terrorism court in 1991. He had filed a petition before the supreme court, which was dismissed in 2005, as it was time-barred. An appeal to review the petition was again dismissed in June 2009 when the government-appointed lawyer for the convict failed to appear before court on two consecutive occasions.

A fresh application has been filed before the supreme court seeking a review of its decision to dismiss Sarabjit’s petition challenging his death penalty.

A mercy petition will also be sent to Pakistan’s president for clemency. Sarabjit’s case has acquired the dimension of an India-Pakistan issue that can be a factor in promoting amity between the people of both countries.