OXFORD, (England), Sept 29: Relatives of a British man due to be hanged in Pakistan in two days staged a demonstration as President Pervez Musharraf arrived to speak at Oxford University on Friday and urged him to intercede.

Leeds-born Mirza Tahir Hussain is due to die on October 1. He was accused of killing a taxi driver in 1988 but was acquitted by the Lahore High Court. However, the Federal Shariat Court took up the case and convicted him.

“He has lost the prime of his youth behind bars for an offence that has no eyewitness and a crime he did not commit,” said his brother Amjad Hussain, outside the Oxford Union.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said Blair raised the issue with Gen Musharraf during a private meeting between them at the Downing Street on Thursday but did not give any details.

Security at the event in Oxford was extremely tight.

Greg Mulholland, Liberal Democrat member of parliament for Leeds North West, said after the demonstration that Musharraf had acknowledged the protest.

“President Musharraf is the only person who can overturn what is so clearly a gross miscarriage of justice,” Mulholland said. “We realise he has to make a bold decision.”

Hussain was originally scheduled to be hanged in June but his execution was delayed after the Pakistan government ordered a stay following appeals from the British government, the European Parliament and the convicted man’s family.

Now 36, Hussain was arrested in 1988 and charged with murdering and robbing a taxi driver, Jamshaid Khan.—Reuters