Islamabad: A Pakistani court has sought reply within three weeks from the government on a petition "seeking judicial restraint" on the possible presidential pardon to Indian national Sarabjit Singh who is currently on death row, a media report said Wednesday.
Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court passed the order Tuesday after hearing the arguments of petitioner advocate Rana Ilumuddin Gazi, The Nation reported.
The petition said Dalbir Kaur, the sister of the convict, is making all efforts to win the sympathies of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to secure a presidential pardon for her brother.
Dalbir reportedly arrived in Pakistan via the Wagah border crossing Monday to meet her brother lodged in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail. Singh is accused of killing 14 people in bomb attacks in Pakistan in 1990.
The petitioner said the trial court had granted death sentence to the convict which was later upheld by Lahore High Court and Supreme Court.
The petitioner said the convict filed a mercy plea before the then Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf who also rejected the appeal and now the convict's family is trying to file a new appeal to President Zardari.
The petitioner, according to The Nation, contended that the president's power under article 45 of the constitution to pardon a murder convict is against the Holy Quran which says that no body except legal heirs or family of the victim has the authority to pardon a murderer. He prayed to the court that the government should be asked to remove article 45 from the constitution.
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