Sarabjit should be the last victim of
Bias
|
By
Raman Sharma
|
Beyond even an iota of doubt, the
Pakistani government and establishment there in Lahore have totally failed to
perform their legal duty of protecting the life of a human being namely
Sarabjit Singh, who happened to be an Indian Citizen who was under judicial
custody facing a death sentence pronounced by the Pakistan's own judiciary. As
per the law, it was the responsibility of the Pakistan government and the
provincial government to protect him till a final decision to execute the
sentence or pardon him is being taken. But even despite repeated prayers by the
family members of Sarabjit requesting them to take necessary steps to ensure
his security in their jails, the authorities there in Pakistan did not pay any
heed to their demand and ultimately their negligence caused the brutal killing
of Sarabjit.
May be the Pakistan government does not have any hand in this conspiracy of killing him because if they wanted to kill Sarabjit they might have legally executed him because as per Pakistani law he was a convicted prisoner who was awarded death sentence by the Pakistan Supreme Court and whose mercy petition had been twice rejected by the Presidents of Pakistan. But yes Pakistan and its establishment is guilty of not taking necessary steps to ensure his safety and security in the jail. They are also guilty of hiding the facts about those who attacked Sarabjit. Pakistan also deserves condemnation for not taking any legal action against the jail authorities who were legally bound to ensure proper security arrangements for the jail inmates. Moreover, Sarabjit was facing a death row and he should have been provided extra security cover even inside the jail. Therefore, apparently there are many questions for which people at the helm of affairs in Pakistan need to reply.
But, I do not put the entire blame on Pakistan for this unfortunate and inhumane act. The family members of Sarabjit and especially his sister for the last so many years is running from pillar to post to get his brother, who was in jail since 1993, released. She had presented a number of memorandums and prayers to the Indian Prime Minister, Home Minister, Foreign Minister and other political bosses but everyone did lip service and beyond that nothing was done. Anyhow, unfortunately, a human being who was an Indian citizen has been brutally killed. Forget whether he was innocent or guilty; at the end of the day he was a human being and deserved some humanity.
This is a very serious issue which would not die with Sarabjit. Governments on both the sides and the civil societies should discuss and debate this further. There should be no further instigation either from Pakistan or India. The media must not try to inflame the situation but they should rather focus on the issue of prison reform across the globe starting from own country. Government of India, media and Indian civil society should appreciate the human rights activists in Pakistan who provided support and legal aid to Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit during her visit to Pakistan. At present there are hundreds of other Indian citizens detained in Pakistani jails facing different charges and similarly there are obviously many Pakistani nationals imprisoned in different jails of India. Now, the government of India should take up case of each Indian citizen with Pakistan so that they do not meet such brutal fate.
In response to an RTI query filled by me in 2009, the government of India informed that there are around 6400 Indians jailed in different foreign countries across the globe and there are over 5000 foreigners imprisoned in different jails of our country. But surprisingly this is unfortunate that the government of India had refused to share the data of foreign nationals who were in Indian jails despite completion of their term of sentence. The government of India had rejected this information citing that they have no such data to intimate that how many foreigners are still languishing in Indian jails who had served their maximum term of sentence which was pronounced by our own judiciary. Even this scribe (in year 2010) had moved a petition to the National Human Rights Commission of India to direct the government of India to divulge this information and the NHRC also as per its customary duty forwarded it to the Union Home Ministry for appropriate action but then after nothing was informed or intimated.
My submission to my government and jail authorities is that we should treat every human being equally and the foreigner nationals in our jails should also be provided same treatment with respect to human rights as our Indians avail as per jail rules, manuals there must not be any bias merely on the ground of once nationality. Supreme document of our country, the constitution of India does not allow any prejudice against anyone merely because of one's race, cast creed, color or nationality. Everyone is equal in the eyes of law. In our law it was nowhere mentioned that if any offence is committed by Indian citizen he would be awarded some lesser sentence and if the same crime is committed by a foreigner he would be given extra punishment.
As far as the case of Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails is concerned or vice versa there is obviously a tendency of bias against each other which the jail-mates in both the countries had to face and there are number of allegations of torture and harassment. To change this prejudice we need immediate jail reforms and must built a mechanism like Indo-Pak Prisoners Commission which would be authorised to visit any jails where a citizen of either India or Pakistan is detained. This commission may have the eminent people having sound knowledge of culture, Law, Social Issues, Languages of both the countries. This commission should be empowered to receive complaints from the prisoner(s) or their relatives without any interference and it should also have the power to order action against the guilty officer if found violating the jail, rules and manuals. There should also be some sort of prisoner's transfer treaty between India and Pakistan where prisoners guilty of petty crimes be transferred to their own country ensuring that they complete their term of sentence there or if both countries agrees the prisoners may transfer the prisoners to some third friendly country which is agreeable to both the nations.
Both government should not waste their time on allegations and counter allegation but take concrete steps so that in future no human being suffer because of the political hatred between the two neighbors. Though it is appreciable that now the government of India is offering some monetary help to the family members of Sarabjit but this is a cosmetic effort which would not last long and ultimately we have to have some mechanism to safeguard human values respecting each other's sovereignty. (The author is an RTI activist and can be reached [a]jkrtiact@gmail.com, Mob. 9796811012.)
published in Kashmir Times, JK Newspoint and others.http://epaper.kashmirtimes.com/index.aspx?page=7
May be the Pakistan government does not have any hand in this conspiracy of killing him because if they wanted to kill Sarabjit they might have legally executed him because as per Pakistani law he was a convicted prisoner who was awarded death sentence by the Pakistan Supreme Court and whose mercy petition had been twice rejected by the Presidents of Pakistan. But yes Pakistan and its establishment is guilty of not taking necessary steps to ensure his safety and security in the jail. They are also guilty of hiding the facts about those who attacked Sarabjit. Pakistan also deserves condemnation for not taking any legal action against the jail authorities who were legally bound to ensure proper security arrangements for the jail inmates. Moreover, Sarabjit was facing a death row and he should have been provided extra security cover even inside the jail. Therefore, apparently there are many questions for which people at the helm of affairs in Pakistan need to reply.
But, I do not put the entire blame on Pakistan for this unfortunate and inhumane act. The family members of Sarabjit and especially his sister for the last so many years is running from pillar to post to get his brother, who was in jail since 1993, released. She had presented a number of memorandums and prayers to the Indian Prime Minister, Home Minister, Foreign Minister and other political bosses but everyone did lip service and beyond that nothing was done. Anyhow, unfortunately, a human being who was an Indian citizen has been brutally killed. Forget whether he was innocent or guilty; at the end of the day he was a human being and deserved some humanity.
This is a very serious issue which would not die with Sarabjit. Governments on both the sides and the civil societies should discuss and debate this further. There should be no further instigation either from Pakistan or India. The media must not try to inflame the situation but they should rather focus on the issue of prison reform across the globe starting from own country. Government of India, media and Indian civil society should appreciate the human rights activists in Pakistan who provided support and legal aid to Dalbir Kaur, the sister of Sarabjit during her visit to Pakistan. At present there are hundreds of other Indian citizens detained in Pakistani jails facing different charges and similarly there are obviously many Pakistani nationals imprisoned in different jails of India. Now, the government of India should take up case of each Indian citizen with Pakistan so that they do not meet such brutal fate.
In response to an RTI query filled by me in 2009, the government of India informed that there are around 6400 Indians jailed in different foreign countries across the globe and there are over 5000 foreigners imprisoned in different jails of our country. But surprisingly this is unfortunate that the government of India had refused to share the data of foreign nationals who were in Indian jails despite completion of their term of sentence. The government of India had rejected this information citing that they have no such data to intimate that how many foreigners are still languishing in Indian jails who had served their maximum term of sentence which was pronounced by our own judiciary. Even this scribe (in year 2010) had moved a petition to the National Human Rights Commission of India to direct the government of India to divulge this information and the NHRC also as per its customary duty forwarded it to the Union Home Ministry for appropriate action but then after nothing was informed or intimated.
My submission to my government and jail authorities is that we should treat every human being equally and the foreigner nationals in our jails should also be provided same treatment with respect to human rights as our Indians avail as per jail rules, manuals there must not be any bias merely on the ground of once nationality. Supreme document of our country, the constitution of India does not allow any prejudice against anyone merely because of one's race, cast creed, color or nationality. Everyone is equal in the eyes of law. In our law it was nowhere mentioned that if any offence is committed by Indian citizen he would be awarded some lesser sentence and if the same crime is committed by a foreigner he would be given extra punishment.
As far as the case of Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails is concerned or vice versa there is obviously a tendency of bias against each other which the jail-mates in both the countries had to face and there are number of allegations of torture and harassment. To change this prejudice we need immediate jail reforms and must built a mechanism like Indo-Pak Prisoners Commission which would be authorised to visit any jails where a citizen of either India or Pakistan is detained. This commission may have the eminent people having sound knowledge of culture, Law, Social Issues, Languages of both the countries. This commission should be empowered to receive complaints from the prisoner(s) or their relatives without any interference and it should also have the power to order action against the guilty officer if found violating the jail, rules and manuals. There should also be some sort of prisoner's transfer treaty between India and Pakistan where prisoners guilty of petty crimes be transferred to their own country ensuring that they complete their term of sentence there or if both countries agrees the prisoners may transfer the prisoners to some third friendly country which is agreeable to both the nations.
Both government should not waste their time on allegations and counter allegation but take concrete steps so that in future no human being suffer because of the political hatred between the two neighbors. Though it is appreciable that now the government of India is offering some monetary help to the family members of Sarabjit but this is a cosmetic effort which would not last long and ultimately we have to have some mechanism to safeguard human values respecting each other's sovereignty. (The author is an RTI activist and can be reached [a]jkrtiact@gmail.com, Mob. 9796811012.)
published in Kashmir Times, JK Newspoint and others.http://epaper.kashmirtimes.com/index.aspx?page=7
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