ISLAMABAD, May 19: British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has written to President Pervez Musharraf asking him not to execute a man due to be hanged next month for murder, officials said on Thursday.

Mirza Tahir Hussain, who is from Leeds in northern England and has dual British-Pakistani nationality, was convicted of shooting dead a taxi driver in the Pakistan country in 1988.

Hussain has been in jail for nearly 18 years but after his conviction was quashed and reinstated twice, his stay of execution is due to run out on June 1, two days before his 36th birthday.

“The foreign secretary has written to request that President Musharraf consider commuting the death sentence to an appropriate term of imprisonment,” a British government official told AFP.

“The letter was officially delivered today to the government of Pakistan,” the official added.

The “exceptional” appeal was made on humanitarian grounds considering the severity of the sentence and the time that Hussain has already spent in prison, the official said.

It also refers to Britain’s long-standing opposition to the death penalty and mentions British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s interest in the case.

British International Development Secretary Hilary Benn has further written to Gen Musharraf in his capacity as Hussain’s local parliamentarian, along with other local MPs, officials said.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed that a request had been received from the British government but said Hussain was sentenced to death after a thorough judicial process.

“The judicial legal system is taking its course. The sentence has been upheld by the highest court in Pakistan,” spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

“He is on death row. The date for his execution is due to be announced on June 1,” said Mohammad Arash, assistant superintendent at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, where Hussain is being held.

“Under the law the president cannot commute his sentence, only the relatives of the deceased could forgive him,” Arash added.

Gen Musharraf has already dismissed a mercy petition by Hussain, who was sentenced to death by a lower court in 1989 for murdering taxi driver Janshir Khan in Rawalpindi, a garrison town adjoining Islamabad.

The death penalty was later overturned by a higher court but then reinstated by Shariat Court. Subsequent appeals also failed.—AFP