Execution of paraplegic death-row convict postponed
ISLAMABAD: A prison official on Tuesday said that the authorities have postponed the execution of the country’s first known paraplegic convict on death-row, about an hour before he was to be hanged.
Prison official Mohammad Safdar said that a magistrate made the decision after talking to Abdul Basit, 43, who was to be hanged before dawn Tuesday.
Basit has been paralyzed from the waist down since contracting meningitis in prison in 2010 and uses a wheelchair. He has been on death row since 2009, convicted of murdering a man in a financial dispute.
Basit’s sister Shugufta Sultana said that the family was waiting outside the prison on Tuesday when they were told of the postponement.
Earlier on Monday, Supreme Court of Pakistan rejected a plea to grant a stay of execution for Basit.
