ISLAMABAD: An official of the Pakistan embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, met Zulfiqar Ali, a Pakistani prisoner whose execution was halted on July 29, to inquire about his health.

Mr Ali was sentenced to death over drug-related charges in a controversial trial. His execution which was scheduled for last week was stopped after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke to Indonesian authorities.

This was claimed in a tweet by the prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz (@MaryamNSharif), on July 29. “Despite bleak chance of success, PM NS decided to make one more attempt to have Zulfiqar’s execution suspended & Alhamdolillah it happened,” she tweeted.

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office on Monday, Head of Chancery Ali Mehmood stayed with Mr Ali for over four hours, met his family and also consulted with his doctor at the Nusa Kambangan Prison Island which is located outside the Indonesian capital.

The statement claimed that Mr Ali “seemed to be in good spirits and his health problems were being attended to adequately”.

The Foreign Office also issued photographs of the prisoner smiling for the camera along with the embassy official, adding that the photographs were “reflective of the prisoner’s condition”.

This was the first informal meeting between a representative of the Pakistan embassy and Mr Ali, since the Indonesian government halted his execution. However, a request for formal consular access is still pending with the Indonesian government.

The Pakistani embassy in Indonesia has led an intensive campaign to convince the Indonesian authorities of Mr Ali’s innocence.

Ambassador Aqil Nadeem also contacted representatives of the Presidential Chief of Staff, the Presidential Advisory Council and Chief Justice of Indonesia’s Constitutional Court to express concern over the flawed prosecution in Mr Ali’s case.

The case

The 52-year-old was arrested in Nov 2004 in connection with a 300-gram heroin case in Jakarta. A co-accused in the case, Gurdip Singh, retracted his statement against Mr Ali, saying the confession had been coerced from him.

His appeals for a judicial review, filed in 2008 and 2013, were turned down and he filed a clemency/mercy appeal with the Indonesian president.

The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a human rights law firm, had requested the president to take up the matter with the Indonesian government to save the life of “an innocent Pakistani”.

The JPP said the Indonesian police had been unable to bring forward any material evidence to support their charge against Mr Ali.

The arrest

Mr Ali was arrested at his house without a warrant in Indonesia’s West Java province. For three days, he was “kicked, punched and threatened with death” by the Soekarno-Hatta Airport district police until he was forced to sign a “self-incriminating confession”.

The JPP said that at one point he was taken out of the police station and threatened to be tied and dragged by a car.He was rushed into an emergency stomach and kidney surgery due to the severity of the physical torture he was subjected to. He remained in the hospital for 17 days, for which the expenses had to be borne by his family, and he still suffered from a number of medical issues as a result, the JPP said.The JPP said Ali did not speak the local language and received limited translation assistance throughout his detention and court proceedings.It said Ali had been denied fair trial and his only legal recourse now was to apply for clemency with the Indonesian president.Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told the Senate on Friday that the Indonesian government had stopped the execution of Zulfiqar Ali after the issue was taken up with the authorities in Jakarta. Speaking on a point of order, he said the Foreign Office and the Prime Minister’s Office intervened in the matter soon after the issue had emerged.The prime minster was personally following the case, Mr Dar added.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2016