Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Tuesday sought reply within three weeks from the federal government on a petition seeking court orders to restrain President Asif Ali Zardari from pardoning Sarabjit Singh, an Indian terrorist on death row in Kotlakhpat Jail for killing 14 people in two bomb blasts in 1990.
The petition was filed by Rana illumuddin Gazi who submitted that Dalbir Kaur, Sarabjit’s sister, was making all-out efforts to win over the sympathies of the prime minister and president of Pakistan for getting presidential pardon for her brother.
The petitioner said that the trial court granted the death sentence to Sarbjit, which was later upheld by LHC and the Supreme Court (SC).
The petitioner had declared the federation respondents, through president of Pakistan, Punjab Home Department, through Lahore Civil Secretariat secretary, and Kotlakhpat Jail superintendent.
He prayed the court to question the Punjab home secretary for the delay in issuance of death warrants for Sarabjit over the last 20 years after his appeal was dismissed by the SC and later by the president.
The petitioner said that the convict had filed a mercy appeal before the then president of Pakistan, who had rejected his appeal and now the convict’s family was trying to file a new mercy appeal to President Zardari, which was ‘unlawful’.
The petitioner contended that the president’s powers under Article 45 of the constitution to pardon a murder convict was against the Quran, which only allowed the deceased’s legal heirs to pardon the murderer.
He prayed to the court that the government should be asked to remove the said article from the constitution, declaring it against the Quran.
He said that the presidential pardon for the convict was not only ‘against Islam’ but was also unconstitutional as the president could not pardon terrorists and spies. He said that it was the duty of the court to stop the misuse of the constitutional powers of the president or other state functionaries.
