Pak interior ministry opposes commuting Sarabjit death penalty

Wed, May 14 01:08 PM

Islamabad, May 13 (PTI) Pakistan's interior ministry has opposed any move to commute the death sentence of Indian national Sarabjit Singh to life imprisonment, saying it could "encourage subversive activities" and goes against the country's ideology. The new government's proposal to convert all death sentences to life imprisonment was reviewed with special reference to Sarabjit's case during a high-level meeting held yesterday in the interior ministry.

The meeting was attended by senior officials of the ministries of foreign affairs, interior, law and human rights and chaired by Additional Interior Secretary Zafeer Abbassi. The interior ministry strongly opposed the proposal to change the death penalty to life imprisonment, saying such a move was "against the ideology of Pakistan", the Daily Times reported today.

The interior ministry also said the proposal, if approved, would spark unrest and a strong reaction among the people. Sarabjit was sentenced to death for alleged involvement in four bomb attacks in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990.

His family insists that he is innocent and was wrongly convicted for the attacks. Quoting official sources, Dawn News channel reported the interior ministry had recommended that Sarabjit's death sentence should not be commuted as such a pardon would "encourage subversive activities by Indian terrorists".

Interior ministry officials told the meeting that the penalty for murder in Islam is death and therefore no law could be made contrary to the religion, the report in the Daily Times said. PTI.

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