Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today stepped up his push for the parole of Beant Singh assassination convict Jagtar Singh Hawara, saying he was hopeful that the latter could be released for a limited period to meet his ailing octogenarian mother.Sources told The Tribune that Hawara was likely to get parole for a day or two and not the 10-day period sought by Mann and some Sikh organisations.Mann, after calling on Governor Gulab Chand Kataria this morning to urge him to take up the matter with the Union Home Secretary, said it was on a purely humanitarian basis that he was pursuing the matter.The CM’s intervention today came days after he had written to the Governor seeking a 10-day parole for Hawara, who has been incarcerated for nearly three decades. He had cited the deteriorating health of Narinder Kaur, Hawara’s mother.Pal Singh France, convener of the Quomi Insaf Morcha that has been seeking parole for Hawara, said initially the Central Government sent them a proposal that Hawara’s mother could be taken to a hospital in Delhi, where he could go and meet her.“When this was rejected and we assured the emissary that law and order will not be disrupted, a second proposal came that she could be shifted to the PGI, Chandigarh, where Hawara could meet her briefly. A third proposal has come that he could be brought to the village for a few hours to meet his ailing mother. She is feeble and keeps asking us, ‘Nikka aaya hai?’ We have urged the government to grant him parole for a few days,” he said.Meanwhile, talking to mediapersons after his 30-minute meeting with the Governor, Mann said he had assured Kataria that there would be no law and order problem in Punjab if Hawara was allowed to come out on parole.“I have assured the Governor that there won’t be any sloganeering or ruckus. The same assurance has been given to me by Hawara’s associates and Sikh organisations associated with his family,” he said.Mann said the Governor had assured him that all relevant papers would be forwarded to the Union Home Secretary at the earliest.“Hawara’s mother is old and ailing. The family says that though she is feeble, she responds when Hawara’s name is taken in front of her. For 31 years, a mother has been waiting for her son,” he said.Hawara was convicted in connection with the assassination of former Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995. He was awarded the death penalty by a trial court in 2007, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted it to life imprisonment in 2010. He is currently lodged in a Delhi jail. He had earlier escaped from Burail Jail, Chandigarh, through a tunnel in 2004, but was later rearrested.Hawara had also approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking a four-week parole.Meanwhile, Mann’s intervention has assumed political significance with the Punjab Assembly elections only a few months away. The Aam Aadmi Party’s move to actively seek parole for Hawara is being viewed as an attempt to make a foray into the Panthic political arena, which is presently dominated by various Akali factions.For Mann, the issue also comes at a politically sensitive time. The Akal Takht had earlier declared him a “Guru Dokhi”, creating a difficult political equation for the CM among sections of the Sikh community. A successful intervention in securing Hawara’s parole could potentially help him rebuild some space in Panthic politics.The development comes against the backdrop of a recent statement by Giani Harpreet Singh of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) that 35 per cent of the party ticket should be given to relatives of “shaheed parivaar” (families whose members had laid down their lives defending the Sikh faith).It also follows the Akali Dal Waris Punjab De naming Satwant Singh, son of Kehar Singh, who was convicted of the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, as its candidate from Bassi Pathana.