PMO seeks details of mercy pleas, Dikshit says reply on Afzal at ‘appropriate’ time

Maneesh Chhibber & Nitin Mahajan

New Delhi, September 24: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has sought details of all pending mercy petitions, including the one filed by 2001 Parliament House attack convict Mohammed Afzal alias Afzal Guru.

The UPA Government has come under fire from the Opposition BJP for being “soft” on Terror and for not taking a decision on the death sentence awarded to Afzal.

Sources in the PMO told The Indian Express that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was asked three days ago to send details of all mercy petitions pending with the President or the MHA. Several petitions by convicts on death row have been lying with Rashtrapati Bhavan for as long as eight years.

“We wish to study the issue. We have been informed that there are 26 mercy petitions under Article 72 pending with the President while two cases, including that of Afzal, are yet to reach the President. We are shortly going to examine all cases,” said a PMO official.

At the same time, the official clarified there was little that the PMO could do in the matter as it was the prerogative of President Pratibha Patil to deal with the issue at her convenience. Simply put, the President can delay deciding on a mercy petition for as long as she wants.

Article 72 of the Constitution empowers the President to grant pardons, and suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases. Former President A P J Abdul Kalam had once sought MHA intervention in taking a compassionate view on pending mercy petitions but sources said the MHA did not alter its recommendation in any case.

In the case of Afzal Guru, the Delhi government has still not sent its comments. Confirming that her government was yet to reply to a MHA letter seeking their view on the Afzal execution matter, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told The Indian Express: “We will reply to the MHA whenever the time is appropriate.” There is speculation in political circles that a decision on the execution will have to wait until the Assembly polls in Delhi are over.

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Policy Making by Sumit on 2008-09-25 15:59:31.423661+05:30
I only pity the sense of these politicians who take a major bunch of police force for their security,leaving public security at the will of the terrorists.Had the terrorists were taken to task without delay then there was no possibility of release of terrorists in exchange of Air India plane's hijacked passengers.Those five terrorist have killed more then hundreds of innocent lives.We as ordinary citizens just pray to God that these politicians should give their security just for 2-3 months and then take the irresponsible policy decisions which they are used to of.I dare to say just look for their words while they lay off their security cover for 2-3 months.Fear and insecurity is among the citizens not among the policy makers.So it makes little difference to them.I know this will never happen.One day the might of terrorists will have to be challenged by a united common man's platform.Till we see such move on part of the public , things will remain same.

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Delay in Execution of Punishment in India by R S Choudhry on 2008-09-25 06:03:06.86702+05:30
The cases of terror attck when not decided with in a reaseonable time creat problem with the Security of this Country.as in the case of Kandhar Hijacking, since the terrorists know loop holes in Government of India functioning , Had the trial and execution wouldd have taken in time than Indian Govt need not to free the Terrorists for Indian Hostages , Government should leave the apeasement Policy otherwise Indian Citizens have doubt about the involvement of Political leaders who have floated the Political party in India to get Protection of law., in the name of Political party, Some Goons when killed get head line coverage and lot of Sympathyby by the Political party with the result most of the Goons join the Political parties, to get the Political Cover . It is the Duty of the Media to uncover all the background of such killings

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