Rejecting speculation that the lahore hospital medical board was considering to shift Sarabjit abroad, Pakistan on Monday said that the "best possible care" is being given to Indian death row convict Sarabjit Singh and that there are no plans to move him out. Sarabjit, 49, is being provided the best possible care in a lahore hospital, and there are no plans to move him, Information Minister Arif Nizami said.
Earlier, India asked Pakistan to release Sarabjit Singh, and demanded that a thorough investigation be done into the attack to ensure punishment to the guilty. The Indian government also asked Pakistan to consider the option of transferring 49-year-old Sarabjit to India so that he can benefit from the best medical treatment available here.
Four-member medical board headed by Jinnah Hospital chief executive Mahmood Shaukat conducted a routine examination of Sarabjit on Monday morning. They rejected a media report that the board was mulling a proposal to send Sarabjit abroad for treatment. "In fact, the medical board has no mandate (to decide about sending Sarabjit abroad)," said the official, who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Monday asked Pakistan to take "seriously" India's appeal for the release of Sarabjit Singh. "We have been concerned of getting him (Sarabjit) back to India. We have been repeatedly pushing the matter. We have pulled out everything we know in diplomacy to reach out for this matter," Khurshid said in Moscow.
Khurshid is in Russia to co-chair the inter-session meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC) with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.
BJP on Monday said the Centre had not acted on reports that Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh may be attacked in the lahore jail, which could have prevented last week's incident. "We condemn this government's stand on the Sarabjit issue. His family members had informed External Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid, his deputy Preneet Kaur and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde that he could be attacked in jail. But still, the Indian government did not wake up and take notice," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
Sarabjit sustained several injuries, including a skull fracture, when six prisoners attacked him in Kot lakhpat Jail on Friday and doctors said his chances of survival are slim. He was hit on the head with bricks and cut with sharp weapons. He is in a deep coma and on ventilator support in an intensive care unit of Jinnah Hospital.
A Pakistani lawyer on Monday sought court's intervention to send Sarabjit Singh to Britain for better medical treatment. Barrister Zafarullah filed a petition in the lahore Registry of the Supreme Court asking it to direct authorities to send Sarabjit to Britain for treatment.