The Pakistani Supreme Court has dismissed the review petition filed by Indian national Sarabjit Singh, 43, challenging his death sentence in a Lahore blast case after his lawyer failed to turn up in the court on time. Sarabjit’s fate now rests in the hands of Asif Ali Zardari as only a presidential pardon can save him.
In an ex parte decision, a three-member apex court bench headed by justice Raja Mohammad Fayyaz dismissed Sarabjit’s review petition on Wednesday after brief hearings for two days and upheld the death sentence awarded to him by an anti-terrorism court in 1991.
Sarabjit, alias Manjit Singh, had been convicted in connection with the Yakki Gate blast in Lahore in 1990 — 14 people had died in the explosion. He is currently lodged in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore.
His lawyer Rana Abdul Hameed conceded that his failure to appear before the apex court on Wednesday morning on time might have angered and provoked the judges to reject the review petition.
He said he had to travel from Lahore to Islamabad but couldn’t make it in time. But this isn’t the first time that Rana failed to appear before the judges.
Asked it he was to blame, Rana said he was an advocate-general and “cannot be present in the court as I’m a government lawyer”. “The lawyer who was to represent him [Sarabjit] was in some other court,” he said, adding that he still had hopes for Sarabjit as his clemency petition was pending before president Zardari, who reportedly has a soft corner for the convicted Indian; Sarabjit’s mercy plea was rejected Pervez Musharraf in 2008.
Zardari’s spokesperson Farhatullah Babar, however, said the government needed more time to study the case.
