WASHINGTON DC: Magbul Sharif, a Pakistan Lawyer, who back in his own country has been fighting a legal battle to save the lives of Harminder Singh and six other Sikh freedom fighters, now languishing in a Lahore Jail, had a close brush with death himself, when he underwent a complexity bypass beart surgery in Washington DC recently.
Harminder and the other Sikh youths were convicted of hijacking an Indian airliner in 1984 and Sentenced to penalties ranging from death to life impoundment by a Pakistan special tribunal, ‘Sharif had barely filed an appeal on their behalf in a provincial high court in Pakistan when he had to fly to Washington DC for the emergency bypass. He has had his share of anxious moments during his convalescence but he is hoping to be well again soon to be able to pursue the case of these Sikh youths, To a large measure he will owe his full recovery to his physician wife Dr. Sadiqa Sharif, who accompanied Kim from Pakistan and has been nursing him during his convalescence Sadiqa perhaps has also camed the gratitude of the Sikh youths whose case Shaniff hopes to pursue with vigor on his return to Pakistan after full recovery. Of the seven Sikh youths two had been acquitted, but they were rearrested following an appeal by the Pakistani government against their release. That was eight years ago and since then they have been languishing in jail because the government appeal has not come before a judge so far.
Formerly a newspaper editor and a close confidante of the late president Zia-ul-Haq, attomey Sharif has challenged the jurisdiction of the tribunal to try the Sikh youths Since it was created for the sole purpose of deterring terrorism, Subversion and sabotage against Pakistan, He contends that these Sikhs have committed no such crime against the federation of Pakistan. He is also concerned about the future of the accused persons. If on appeal they are acquitted the government may be obliged to return them to India, The two Sikh men who were acquitted in the 1981 hijacking were killed as soon as they crossed the international border after their release from a Pakistani jail. Sharif is asking the High Court to treat Hanminder as a citizen of Mirpur, in the Pakistani-controlled Azad Kashmir, where he was bom. His father Dr. Kulwant Singh is currently a resident of Srinagar, Summ Capital of the Indian-controlled Kashmir. The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, he reminds, continues to be a disputed territory in the eyes of the world community.
Talking to his journalist friends after surgery at the Washington Adventist Hospital, Sharif said that he borrowed courage from his young Sikh clients to face the open heart surgery. He recalled Harminder telling him that his best time behind the bars was the two year period he spent on the death row. In the calm and quictjail cell, he said, he was alone in the company of Sri Wahe Guruji and enjoyed the two-way close communion. Harminder was benefited by the general amnesty announced by the Pakistan people’s party as it took power in 1988 and commuted the death sentences awarded by Qausi-judicial tribunals to many of its own members. Rawinder Singh, the co-accused Shariff is defending, was awarded life imprisonment to begin with.
(For questions: Dr. Surjit Kaur
(703-533-3302) Akmal Alecmi (Voa) 202-619-0276).
Article extracted from this publication >> September 2, 1994
