Pakistani asks for fresh date to hang Briton

ISLAMABAD, Oct 2 (Reuters) Pakistani prison authorities today asked a court to fix a new date for the execution of British man sentenced to hang in case that was raised by Prime Minister Tony Blair with President Pervez Musharraf last week.

A British television channel had broadcast an interview with President Pervez Musharraf yesterday in which the Pakistani leader said he would not reverse a court's decision regarding Mirza Tahir Hussain.

''I'm not a dictator,'' he said. ''I can't violate a court judgement, whether you like the court or not,'' Musharraf told ITV's programme, ''The Sunday Edition''.

Hussain, 36, from Leeds in northern England, has spent half his life in jail since his arrest following the shooting of a taxi driver, Jamshaid Khan, in Islamabad in 1988.

The government has stayed his execution from month to month since June.

While the last stay order expired yesterday, executions do not take place during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, or the three-day Eid celebration that marks its end, which means that Hussain cannot be hung before around October 27.

''We asked the court to fix the date of his execution,'' Abdul Rauf, the governor of the Central Jail in Rawalpindi, told Reuters.

''Executions are totally banned in Ramadan, so that's why the date will be after Eid festival.'' Blair took up the issue during a private meeting with Musharraf in London last week, following earlier attempts by rights groups and British lawmakers to help Hussain's family to secure his release.

Hussain has always contended that the taxi driver tried to sexually assault him and then pulled gun which went off when they struggled.

He was originally acquitted of the crime, but was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to death by an Islamic court in 1998, and his appeals to the Supreme Court and for a presidential pardon were subsequently turned down.

Under Pakistan's parallel Islamic legal system, Hussain could be freed if Khan's family were ready to accept compensation.

But the dead man comes from a tribal part of Pakistan where family feuds can run for generations and accepting blood money is regarded as dishonourable and they have so far refused to negotiate.

REUTERS LL KN1946