ISLAMABAD, July 28: A British national condemned to die for murder on August 3 got another lease of life on Thursday as his hanging has been put off for one month. Mirza Tahir Hussain, who hails from Pakistan, can now breathe a bit easy as President Pervez Musharraf considers the third mercy appeal made by his family on his behalf. British High Commission is also assisting the family members in pleading the request.

Mr Hussain execution has been stayed for the second time in the current year. Earlier, he was to be executed on June 3, however, the president considered his second mercy appeal and stayed the execution for a month on May 23.

However, after completion of the stay period, the court of law on the jail administration’s request issued the death warrant and fixed August 3 as the execution date.

The family member of Mr Hussain submitted an appeal on the behalf of the murder convict soon after the fixing of his execution date. He appealed to the president that his family was negotiating with the family members of taxi driver Jamshid Khan for whose murdered Mr Hussain was sentenced to death.

Senior politicians from the ruling party are confident that Mr Hussain will finally be pardoned. Negotiations are still going on with the family members of the deceased.

However, Mr Hussain’s family and the politicians have not yet convinced them.

It may be mentioned here that earlier British Prime Minister Tony Blair, foreign secretary Margaret Beckeet and international human rights watch dog had requested the Pakistani president to review the death sentence of Mr Hussain on humanitarian grounds as he had already undergone more than life sentence.