Pak court sets Nov. 1 as new date to hang Briton

ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: A Pakistani court has set November 1 as the new date for the hanging of a British man sentenced to death for killing a taxi driver 18 years ago, officials said today.

Mirza Tahir 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.

The last stay order expired on October 1, but punishment was deferred because executions are not carried out during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends next week.

An official at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi said a court in neighbouring Islamabad had fixed November 1 as the new date for the execution.

The execution date coincides with a visit by Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla on October 29 to November 3.

Asked whether Charles would take up the matter with Pakistani authorities, British High Commission spokesman Aidan Liddle said: ''All I am going to say on that is that the Prince of Wales is aware of the case and has taken personal interest in it.'' British Prime Minister Tony Blair took up the issue during a private meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in London last month, following earlier attempts by rights groups and British lawmakers to help Hussain.

A senior Pakistani government official said Musharraf was expected to grant another stay to give more time to Hussain's relatives to reach a settlement with the victim's family.

Under Pakistan's parallel Islamic legal system, Hussain could be freed if Khan's family accepts a blood money settlement.

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

Hussain has always contended that the taxi driver tried to sexually assault him and then pulled a 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.

Reuters