Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar said that the remission was granted on the advice of the Prime Minister to honor the appeal of the Supreme Court of India to the Government of Pakistan. He said that several Indian newspapers recently reported that in an unusual step India's apex court appealed two weeks ago to Pakistan to consider granting remission to Das for humanitarian reasons.

The bench, comprised of Justice Markandey and Justice Gyan Sudha, observed: “We cannot give any direction to Pakistan authorities because we have no jurisdiction over them. The Indian authorities have done all that they could in the matter. However, that does not prevent us from making a request to the Pakistani authorities to consider the appeal of the petitioner for releasing him on humanitarian ground by remitting the remaining path of his sentence.”