Appeal for clemency

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. Unfortunately 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 pointed out last week in a letter by a reader from Dubai, Huma Imam, as the temporary reprieve granted to him during Ramazan 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 agonising 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.