Pakistan postpones execution of paraplegic death-row convict

Pakistan has postponed the execution of the country’s first known paraplegic on death-row, about an hour before he was to be hanged, officials said. The man’s family welcomed the development with relief and urged the government to spare his life on medical grounds. The day before, Pakistan’s Supreme Court refused to halt the execution of 43-year-old Abdul Basit, who has been paralysed from the waist down since contracting meningitis in prison in 2010 and uses a wheelchair. According to prison official Mohammad Safdar, a magistrate made the decision to postpone the death sentence after talking to Basit.

We were waiting for bad news but God gave a new life to my brother and his execution was postponed.

Basit’s sister, Shugufta Sultana

Basit has been on death row since 2009, convicted of murdering a man in a financial dispute in Punjab province. According to Justice Project Pakistan, prison guidelines require that a prisoner stands on the gallows and the rope’s length is determined by his standing height. They said in a statement last week that attempting a hang a wheelchair-bound convict may not work. Basit’s mother Nusrat Perveen also confirmed the execution delay, telling AFP that a jail official had called her to inform her “the hanging has been postponed because of Basit’s sickness”. Basit’s lawyers and the rights group Reprieve had petitioned Pakistan’s top court to halt the execution, arguing that hanging him would constitute cruel and inhuman punishment.