sarabjit-asif-ali-zardariLAHORE - Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death on charges of staging bomb blasts here in 1990, will file a mercy petition before Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, his lawyer said Monday. “I will file the mercy petition Wednesday. I have also sought a meeting with the president so I can take up the matter with him personally,” lawyer Owais Qureshi told reporters after meeting Sarabjit at the high security Kot Lakhpat jail here.

The petition will include a letter from Sarabjit urging Zardari to pardon him on humanitarian grounds so he could live the rest of his life with his family in India, Sheikh added.

“I have spent nearly 19 years in prison. Islam teaches its followers to forgive instead of taking revenge,” the letter reportedly says.

Qureshi said, Sarabjit also urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up his case with the Pakistan government.

The mercy petition follows the Pakistani Supreme Court’s decision June 24 to reject Sarabjit’s plea against the death sentence after his lawyer failed to appear in the court despite being directed to do so.

Earlier, India had hoped that Pakistan would take a sympathetic and humanitarian view of the case.

Sarabjit has been convicted of staging four bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan in 1990 that claimed 14 lives. The mercy plea is now the only option left to him.

The court verdict, delivered by a three-judge bench headed by Justice Raja Fayyaz, has left Sarabjit’s family in Bhikiwind village in Indian Punjab distraught and they urged their government to save his life.

In New Delhi, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, June 24, acknowledged that the prisoner’s fate had touched a nerve in India.

“Sarabjit Singh’s case has touched the sentiments of many people in India who have been following this case,” he said.

Krishna said India had appealed - and would continue to appeal - to Pakistan to remove Sarabjit Singh from death row.

After the Supreme Court delivered its verdict, it became evident that there had been a miscarriage of justice.

The lawyer who was to defend him said he could not do so as he had been appointed a law officer in Punjab province. He said he had asked a colleague to appear on his behalf but he failed to so.

Qureshi had June 27 announced he would henceforth represent Sarabjit.

“Yes, I can confirm I will make an appeal to President Zardari to either pardon Sarabjit Singh or to convert the death sentence to life imprisonment,” he said at a press conference here at which Punjab province’s Additional Advocate General Rana Abdul Hameed was present.

“Mutual trust between India and Pakistan would be strengthened if my client is pardoned or his sentence is reduced to life imprisonment,” he added.

He maintained that Sarabjit was innocent and not involved in any terrorist act.

Sarabjit’s family too says he is innocent and had strayed into Pakistan in a drunken state. He was convicted in 1991.

Sarabjit’s family was given Pakistani visas in April last year to visit him in prison. The family, including his wife, sister and two daughters, met him after 18 years.

When he was arrested in 1990, one of his daughters was a toddler while the second one was born later.