Appeal for
Clemency
By Asad Siddiqi
Kashmir Road, Lahore
On
Friday morning I read online about the seemingly
unending ordeal over the past 18 years of Mirza-Tahir
Hussein, as reported by a London Times correspondent
who visited the hapless prisoner a few days ago
in his death-row cell in Rawalpindi Central Jail.
It made me immeasurably sad, and the thought of
his continued suffering continues to nag me.
Hussein was only 18 when on that fateful night
in December 1988 he hired a taxi at Islamabad
airport to take him to his ancestral village.
He was on his first visit to Pakistan since the
time in 1970 when he migrated to England as a
babe-in-arms. But as luck would have it he never
reached his village.
On the way the taxi driver reportedly pulled a
gun on him in an apparent attempt at robbery,
but was overpowered by Hussein in a scuffle that
resulted in the taxi driver's accidental death.
Instead of fleeing from the scene Hussein drove
the taxi to the nearest police station.
Since then there have been trials and re-trials,
temporary reprieves and pardons, but the death
sentence has not been commuted. Hussein's family
has also offered "blood money" - reportedly
as much as a hundred thousand pounds - but the
taxi driver's family after initially accepting
the offer has rejected it, ostensibly on being
chastised by their relatives for agreeing to a
price for their son's "blood and bones."
His 18 years on death-row have turned Hussein
into a deeply religious man. Even Tony Blair took
up his plea for clemency with President Musharraf
during his recent visit to the UK. Time is indeed
running out for Hussein as the temporary reprieve
granted to him during Ramdan may well be his last.
Barely 18 at the time of the incident Hussein
has spent the following 18 years fighting for
justice. Murder by accident or in self-defence
is not the same as a pre-meditated act to take
someone's life. The former is termed manslaughter,
for which the agonizing incarceration of 18 years
and the attendant mental anguish of the prisoner
and his loved ones are punishment enough. Hussein
has paid his debt to society. It is now time to
free him.
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