Hussain: Reprieve

Islamabad, May 23 (Reuters): Pakistan postponed the execution of a British man for a month today in order to give his family the chance to reach a settlement with the family of a taxi driver he was convicted of murdering 18 years ago.

Mirza Tahir Hussain, who is of Pakistani descent, had been set to face the gallows in early June until President Pervez Musharraf’s intervention following appeals from the British government, European Parliament and the convicted man’s family.

Musharraf, in response to the appeal from the family, had ordered a one month postponement from June 1, foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

“During this time, they (Hussain’s family) are to work out some mutually agreed arrangement with the family of the victim,” she said.

Under Islamic shariat law, heirs of a victim may pardon a murderer in return for blood money. The dead man’s family had dismissed a previous attempt by Hussain’s family to reach a negotiated settlement.

“It is a step in the right direction but I am not joyous because it means my brother would stay in jail indefinitely,” Amjad Hussain, Hussain’s brother, said.

Originally from Leeds in northern England, Hussain was arrested in Rawalpindi in 1988 and charged with murdering and robbing a taxi driver, Jamshaid Khan.

Hussain, who will be 36 on June 1 and has spent half his life behind bars, said at his trial that the driver had tried to sexually assault him. He maintained the driver pulled a gun on him that went off when the two struggled.

Hussain’s brother said their grandfather would re-start negotiations with Khan’s family. “I hope they do the honourable thing and spare his ordeal,” he said, adding: “The ball is in their court. My doors are open for anyone who can negotiate. I think I am very pessimistic...but anyway we have to wait and see.”

Hussain was originally acquitted by Pakistan’s high court, but the Islamic federal shariat court sentenced him to death by hanging in 1998.