PAKISTAN. INDIAN NATIONAL ON DEATH ROW IN PAKISTAN TO BE SPARED, REPORT

Islamabad assured New Delhi that Sarabjit Singh, an Indian sentenced to be hanged in Pakistan on bombing and spying charges, would be reprieved, the Hindu newspaper said.
The assurance followed a plea by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Sarabjit Singh's life be spared, said the report, quoting unidentified Indian government officials. Although Pakistan's Supreme Court upheld a lower court verdict in August and ordered Singh's hanging, the judgement was likely to be bypassed and clemency granted, it said. It said Singh could either get a full pardon or the sentence could be commuted either through the personal intervention of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf or through a review petition in the Supreme Court.
The Pakistani government denied it had said Singh would not be hanged. "There has been no such assurance given by Pakistan," foreign ministry spokesman Naeem Khan said in Islamabad. Sarabjit Singh's family said he was a farmer who crossed the border 15 years ago while drunk.