LONDON/ISLAMABAD, 19 October 2006 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf yesterday to intervene again to halt the hanging of a British national, scheduled during an upcoming royal visit.
Blair warned of “very serious” consequences if the execution of Mirza Tahir Hussain were to go ahead on Nov. 1, coinciding with a planned visit by Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
“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. He noted that he had made a personal representation over the case to Musharraf during a recent visit to London by the Pakistani leader.
“There is a limit to what the president can do, but I hope that he can use the powers that he has,” said Blair, adding: “We will continue to make representations right up to the last moment.” Blair declined to comment on the royal trip, but one British lawmaker immediately called for the tour to be canceled.
“For this unjust execution to go ahead anyway would be bad enough, but to do this when Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, is visiting the country would be monstrous,” said Greg Mulholland, MP for Leeds North West.
“I would urge His Royal Highness to cancel his visit if this terrible miscarriage of justice, the state murder of a man from Leeds, is scheduled to go ahead at that time.” And the Liberal Democratic lawmaker added: “Canceling the visit will send a clear and powerful message to the Pakistani authorities.”
Meanwhile Prince Charles’ spokesman said he had contacted Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to voice his feelings over the case. “The Prince of Wales has been concerned about this case for some time and had raised it with the prime minister of Pakistan. We have been following the situation closely and will act in accordance with Foreign Office advice,” his office added in a statement, referring to the Foreign Ministry.
In Islamabad, a spokesman for the British High Commission, Aidan Liddle, said British authorities were “doing everything we can and exploring every possible avenue” to save Hussain. Pakistan’s Foreign Office had no immediate reaction to Blair’s comments. Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP: “I don’t even have absolute confirmation that this man is being hanged.”
Hussain, 36, from Leeds in northern England, has spent half his life in a Pakistani jail fighting a death sentence for killing a taxi driver. The decision on his fate follows three previous stays of execution ordered by Musharraf and comes despite a vocal campaign by Hussain’s family to save his life.
Hussain has been on the death row since June but the government has stayed his execution from month to month to give his relatives more time to persuade the victim’s family to pardon him in return for compensation.
NATO Jet Bombs Village
NATO aircraft bombed a village near Chitral district on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border yesterday.
Chitral Mayor Sher Muhammad told Arab News on phone, “The plane bombed areas near Chitral forest damaging some shops but there were no casualties.”
