By NNN-PTI,
Islamabad : Leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney, who played a key role in the campaign to commute the death sentence of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, will be conferred the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award on human rights and social justice in India on Sunday.
The Harmony Foundation of India will honour Burney, a former human rights minister, with the award for his role in promoting human rights in Pakistan.
Baroness Caroline Cox, Deputy Speaker of Britain’s House of Lords, was the first recipient of the award instituted in 2005. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad received it in 2006.
Expressing happiness at being chosen for the award, Burny told PTI on Friday that he would use his visit to India to lobby with rights activists and senior officials to commute the sentences of death row prisoners in Pakistan and India into life imprisonment.
“The visit will also give me an opportunity to work for better relations between the two countries,” said Burney, who will leave for India tomorrow. The award will be presented during a ceremony to be held in Mumbai on Sunday.
Burney said he would also take up the problems of Pakistanis being held in Indian jails even after completing their sentences. There are over 50 such prisoners in Amritsar jail alone and one of them, Mohammad Asif, died of medical complications on October 11, he said.