Chandigarh, Aug 19 - The lawyer representing Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in a Pakistani jail Wednesday met Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and appealed to him to take up the issue of his client's release with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Pakistani lawyer, Owais Sheikh, gave Badal a copy of mercy petition of Sarabjit, who has been on death row in Pakistan on charges of terrorism.

'We want Badal to give this mercy petition to the Indian prime minister and to persuade him to take up this issue with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari seeking clemency for Sarabjit,' said Sheikh after meeting Badal at his residence here Wednesday.

'I have appealed to Badal to use all of his diplomatic channels to pursue this case. I visited the native village of Sarabjit in Punjab and I would return to Pakistan with mercy petitions signed by over 100,000 people,' Sheikh said.

Pakistan's Supreme Court had rejected Sarabjit's mercy petition June 24 after his former lawyer Rana Abdul Hamid failed to appear in the court despite being specifically directed to do so.