ISLAMABAD, 20 October 2006 — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has delayed the hanging of a British man by two months, officials said yesterday, meaning it will no longer coincide with a visit by Britain’s Prince Charles.
Musharraf postponed the execution scheduled for Nov. 1 following an appeal by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and after Charles, the heir to the British throne, separately contacted the Pakistani government.
It is the fourth time Musharraf has spared Mirza Tahir Hussain. The 36-year-old has spent nearly half his life in jail in Pakistan for the murder of a taxi driver, despite earlier having been cleared.
“We have just received a stay order from Aiwan-i-Sadar (the presidency),” an official at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where Hussain is being held, said on condition of anonymity.
A new execution date has been set for Dec. 31, the official added. Pakistan’s foreign office denied the delay was a result of British pressure, saying that it was to give Hussain’s family and the relatives of victim Jamshed Khan time to find a solution.
“It has nothing to do with what the British leadership has to say. There was no pressure and I have said earlier that we do not accept ultimatums from anybody,” foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.
But Hussain thanked Prince Charles and Blair in a mobile phone interview from his cell with BBC radio before his sentence was delayed. “I am grateful to his royal highness for showing interest in my plight. I am also grateful to Prime Minister Blair for his continued representation,” Hussain said.
“I am hoping that President Musharraf will not send me to the gallows when he himself has expressed doubts about the safety of my conviction.” His brother Amjad told Sky News television that the delay was “torture and murder by a thousand cuts.”
He feared the execution was simply being put off until Charles had left Pakistan, which he said would be “disgraceful.”
Pakistani officials say that while it reportedly remains in Musharraf’s power to offer clemency, the military ruler does not want to be seen overriding the courts or bowing to Western pressure.
The British High Commission in Islamabad earlier said that Prince Charles would still visit with his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, despite calls to stay away in protest.
The royal tour, Charles’ first to Pakistan, is scheduled between Oct. 29 and Nov. 3.
“As far as we are concerned the visit is still going ahead and we want it to go ahead,” High Commission spokesman Aidan Liddle said. “It is a really important visit.” Charles is due to meet Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his trip. The prince’s spokesman confirmed he had been “concerned over this case for some time” and had personally raised the matter with Aziz.
Blair on Wednesday said he had made a representation over the case to Musharraf during a recent visit to London by the Pakistani leader.
“I hope even at this stage that there is an intervention to ensure this does not take place. I think it would be very serious if it does,” Blair said when asked about the case in the House of Commons.
Greg Mulholland, the British member of Parliament who represents Hussain’s home constituency, called for the royal tour to be canceled saying it would be “monstrous” to go ahead when a Briton was to be executed.
Dual British-Pakistani national Hussain was 18 when he was arrested for killing a taxi driver shortly after arriving in Pakistan to visit relatives in 1988.
Hussain claims he acted in self-defense after the driver tried to sexually assault him but he was convicted in 1989. In 1996 he was cleared by the high court but an Shariah court took control of the case and imposed the death penalty.
His family have since been unable to negotiate a “blood money” deal with relatives of the victim.
