ISLAMABAD, 16 March 2006 — Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday stayed the execution of a man sentenced to death for plotting to kill President Pervez Musharraf, sources said.
“The top court issued the stay on execution of Mushtaq Ahmad, convicted and sentenced to death in a plot to kill Musharraf,” a defense lawyer said.
Ahmad, was among nearly a dozen civilians and junior soldiers arrested weeks after Al-Qaeda-linked militants tried to blow up Musharraf’s motorcade on Dec. 14, 2003, in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
A military court sentenced Ahmad to death in late 2004 and he lost a legal battle Tuesday when another court rejected his appeal.
Yesterday, however, the man’s lawyer, Mohammed Akram, said the Supreme Court heard his appeal and stopped his client’s planned hanging yesterday.
Chief Justice Iftkhar Chaudhry and Justice Shakirullah Jan formed a two-member bench to hear the initial arguments and decide on the appeal for regular hearing.
A government official confirmed the stay, but provided no further details.
Since Ahmad’s arrest, the local media has reported that he was a low-ranking Pakistan Air Force personnel. But, yesterday, the air force spokesman Commodore Sarfraz Ahmad said that the man was not their regular employee.
“He is a civilian, who had been arrested for inciting some air force people to participate in the plot to kill President Musharraf,” he said, adding a military court had sentenced him to death after he failed to defend himself.
He gave no details about the yesterday court ruling, however.
Musharraf, who made Pakistan a key ally of the United States in its war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America, has survived three assassination attempts, all blamed on Al-Qaeda linked militants.
