ISLAMABAD, March 18: Pakistan on Tuesday said the Indian government had filed a new clemency appeal for death-row convict Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national, who may be executed on April 1 for his involvement in terrorist activities.

“The ministry of foreign affairs is bringing the Indian request to the notice of the authorities concerned,” said Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq.

The Indian government had approached Pakistan with an appeal to grant clemency to the Indian national on humanitarian grounds.

“The Indian minister for external affairs appealed to Pakistan government to treat Sarabjit Singh’s case … on humanitarian grounds,” a statement by Indian High Commission said, adding that India was dismayed over the news about planned execution of Sarabjit Singh.

Realising that it had ‘limited options’ in seeking clemency for the condemned prisoner, the Indian government urged Pakistan to ‘keep sentiments of people in mind’ and to deal with him leniently.

The Indian statement said it hoped the appeal would be given a chance to be considered from all angles.

It cautioned that the execution, if carried out, could hurt the positive atmosphere currently prevailing between the two countries.

India also sought consular access to Sarabjit, who was sentenced to death in for his involvement in four bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan that killed 14 people.

Sources in the Foreign Office, however, say chances of accepting the mercy petition are poor.

Things, the sources said, became particularly difficult after the death of Pakistani prisoner Khalid Mehmood in an Indian jail last month allegedly because of torture by Indian authorities. His body was repatriated to Pakistan days after an Indian spy Kashmir Singh had been pardoned and repatriated to India.

Sarabjit Singh’s sister Dalbir Kaur has also sent a clemency appeal directly to President Pervez Musharraf. She also requested for permission to visit Pakistan to meet her brother.

The Supreme Court rejected Sarabjit’s mercy petition in March 2006 and upheld his death sentence.

President Pervez Musharraf has already rejected Sarabjit Singh’s mercy petition.

AFP adds: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said his government was making “all possible efforts” to seek a reprieve from Islamabad for the death-row convict.

“The government of India has taken up the matter of Sarabjit Singh with the Pakistan government at the highest levels,” the premier said in a letter to the chief minister of Indian Punjab province, the condemned man’s home state.

A spokesman for the prime minister said the letter was in response to chief minister Prakash Singh Badal’s appeal for top-level intervention to save Sarabjit.

“The prime minister assured him that the government of India is making all possible efforts to seek a reprieve for Sarabjit Singh,” it added.