Sarabjit's wife & daughters appeal to New Delhi to intervene

"I appeal to the Indian and the Pakistani governments that my husband is innocent. The time he has spent in Pakistan surpasses a life sentence. This delay is torturing us. If the Indian government puts pressure, he can be saved. The Indian government should not remain quite," Sarabjit's wife Sukhpreet Kaur said.

His young daughters Swapandeep and Poonam said they had "full confidence" that the hearing in their father's case in the Pakistan Supreme Court would have a "positive" outcome.

"But now we are shocked and we did not expect this... He is an Indian citizen. The Indian government should do something. We have given proofs of his innocence to the Pakistan government," they said.

Meanwhile, noted jurist and criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani said that the Indian government should intervene in the case.

Rana Abdul Hamid, the lawyer who was representing Sarabjit, had been unable to appear in court in Pakistan after he was last year appointed an additional advocate general by Punjab province.

Sarabjit has been on death row since he was convicted for alleged involvement in four bomb blast cases in 1990 that killed 14 people.

Poonam said her family has been told that a new lawyer did not appear in the case on the ground that he had not received money.

"When the agreement for fighting our father's case was signed, the lawyers said they will take Rs two lakh and an additional Rs one lakh will have to be paid once he returned home.

"We have paid money more than what was charged but the lawyer is saying that he has not received the fees. We have done so much," she said.