PAKISTAN DENIES BRITISH PRESSURE HELPED DELAY EXECUTION

Pakistan said it did not postpone the execution of Mirza Tahir Hussain under pressure from London, adding that the two-month delay was meant to give relatives time to reach a compromise. President Pervez Musharraf put back the November 1 hanging of Hussain following an appeal by Prime Minister Tony Blair and after Prince Charles, who visits Pakistan at the end of the month, also expressed interest.
"It has nothing to do with what the British leadership has to say. There was no pressure and we do not accept ultimatums from anybody," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP.
"It is basically to give the families as much time as possible so that they are able to work out something."
Hussain, 36, had spent nearly half his life in a Pakistani jail for the 1988 murder of taxi driver Jamshed Khan, despite earlier having been cleared by a high court. He was later sentenced to death by an Islamic court.