NEW DELHI, 25 August 2005 — Pakistani authorities have allowed consular access to Sarabjit Singh, facing execution in Pakistan on charges of being a spy, as the Indian High Commission in Islamabad has taken up the matter with the Pakistani government.

Late Tuesday, the Indian High Commission had taken up the matter with Pakistan and had sought consular access to Sarabjit.

India’s High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Menon met Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan in Islamabad and discussed the Sarabjit issue with him, said officials here. Details of the discussions were not immediately available.

The Pakistani Supreme Court, while upholding a lower court order, last week ordered Sarabjit to be hanged suspecting him to be an Indian intelligence agent. Pakistan also alleges that he was involved in bomb explosions in Lahore and other cities. Sarabjit’s family, living in Punjab, however, claims that he is innocent.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said yesterday it was up to President Pervez Musharraf to decide whether to pardon Sarabjit. Kasuri said he discussed the issue with Musharraf on Tuesday.

He said Sarabjit could petition the Supreme Court to review its decision and if that failed he could appeal to Musharraf.

“As far as clemency is concerned, it’s in nobody’s hands. It has to go to the president of Pakistan,” he told reporters. “If a mercy petition comes, then the president will decide on merit,” Kasuri said in an interview to a private Indian TV channel in which he directly spoke to Sarabjit’s sister from the channel’s studio.

Sarabjit’s sister, during the brief conversation, appealed to Kasuri that her brother be spared as he was innocent. It is a case of mistaken identity...My brother is being punished for the crime which he has not committed, she added.

Kasuri told her that the Supreme Court has taken 15 years in deciding the case...I can’t say anything at this stage...Your clemency appeal will reach the president...Only he can take a decision on it. He said the courts in Pakistan were independent and the government did not interfere with their functioning.

When it was pointed out to him that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh might speak to Musharraf in this connection, he said I can’t comment on what they will discuss.

Meanwhile, television networks, members of Parliament, children, film actors and war widows rallied yesterday behind a growing campaign to save Sarabjit.

MPs have said they will debate the matter in Parliament.

Yesterday, residents of Bhikiwind in Punjab held street marches in a show of solidarity for Sarabjit. In New Delhi schoolchildren launched a public campaign in support of the man set to be hanged on a date yet to be fixed TV stations NDTV and Headlines Today urged viewers to send SMS messages in support of Sarabjit.