Pakistan Views

The Federal Minister for Human Rights, Ansar Burney, on Monday stated that his ministry will not submit any mercy petition in support of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national charged with terrorism in Pakistan. Ansar Burney said that the case of Sarabjit Singh was different because Sarabjit was charged with terrorism. Burney said that he supported the release of Kashmir Singh because he had paid for his crime and after consideration the President had granted him mercy. Talking about release of Kashmir Singh Burney said that the reason for his petition to the President was that Kashmir Singh had already spent 35 years in a death cell, over two life sentences he said; and after spending such a long time in a death cell, which Burney described as far worse than normal prison cell, it was against Pakistani law and Islamic teachings to hang Singh. Burney added that Singh’s case was only one of the appeals he had sent to the President. The other appeals involved persons, mostly Pakistanis, who were condemned prisoners and had already spent over a life sentence in a death cell, become mentally disabled, physically disabled and developed serious illnesses. Ansar Burney had appealed to the President to halt any further hangings of such condemned prisoners in Pakistan until the Ministry of Human Rights completed an investigation on such prisoners; and made its recommendations. Explaining the condition of death cells, Burney said that in a capacity of 3, there were as many as 8 to 12 prisoners. There was no drainage in their cells, so they would eat in the same place where they would go for toilet. He said because of over crowding and lack of facilities, many prisoners did not even have space to sleep and due to their conditions many had become mentally and physically disabled some had even had their arms or legs amputated due to problems developed in prison. Many of them have had their appeals pending in courts or before the President for decades. Burney said that after keeping someone in a death cell for so many years and after that person had become mentally and/or physically disabled due to the conditions that person had been placed in, it was morally wrong to hang such a person and against the Law of the country and teachings of Islam. Burney also said that the Ministry of Human Rights, with great assistance and support from provincial governments, was initiating prison reforms such as separating women prisons from men, providing basic facilities to prisoners, improving meeting areas (with families), building schools inside prisons for juvenile prisoners and children of female prisoners, improving medical facilities in prisons, providing jail staff with basic needs, building places of worship for prisoners belonging to minorities, arranging for vehicles for prisons to ensure prisoners attend court hearings and more. The Ministry of Human Rights has also been paying for the fines of prisoners who had completed their jail terms but remained behind bars because they could not pay their fines themselves. One such prisoner released from a prison in Balochistan had completed his jail term nearly 8 years ago, but remained behind bars because he could not pay his fine. The Ministry had also arranged for the release of 550 Afghan children from a prison in Balochistan. The Ministry of Human Rights had also secured the release of several innocent prisoners including a 9-year-old boy charged with kidnapping for ransom. The Ministry has also been busy trying to promote rights of minorities, working against slavery and human trafficking.
Ansar Burney stated that in the few days that he had remaining as a caretaker minister, he hoped to continue this work and complete many more such projects.