The plight of Mirza Tahir Hussain has received minimal coverage during Musharraf's visit to Britain this past week.
Hussain was involved in an incident with a taxi during which the latter was shot dead. Hussain was initially found guilty of murder, but eventually cleared by the Lahore High Court in Pakistan, citing a lack of evidence. Nonetheless, he was brought before Pakistan's Kafkaesque Federal Shariat Court for the crime of highway robbery, which has jurisdiction in such cases. This court found him guilty of a crime he says he did not commit, for which there was little or no evidence, and for an incident in which Hussain himself had the honesty to drive the dead body of the taxi driver to a police station. Indeed, one of the dissenting judges in the Shariat Court, Abdul Waheed Siddiqui, said that Hussain was "an innocent, raw youth not knowing the mischief and filth in which the police of this country is engrossed" and that the prosecution rested their claims on "conflicting, mutually annihilating" versions. He was set to be executed this past Sunday, but the execution has been delayed because of Ramadan. The IHRC, Fair Trials Abroad, has more on the background, as do Faisal Bodi (from back in May) and Sajjid Karim, MEP for North-West England. There is still time to write to the Pakistani High Commision in Britain. The IHRC has more on how to contact the PHCB. Or use Musharraf's website to let him (or his press secretary) know this is a travesty of justice and he should use his powers under Article 45 of Pakistan's constutition to grant Hussain a pardon (and whilst your there also voice your support for this).
What is also apparent in this sorry case, apart from the state of Pakistan's legal system, the corruption of their police force and the refusal of the Dictator to intervene for political purposes, is the damning silence in much of the media in Britain. Hussain is, afterall, a British citizen and a man who, despite not being born in Britain, served in the Territorial Army and was keen to join the regulars. He was willing to die for his country (despite not being born here), but now it seems his country is willing to remain silent and let him die. Imagine, asks Justin Huggler in the Independent, had this case had involved a white 18-year old on a gap-visit. How do you think the whole affair would have been covered?
Update (5/10): Pickled Politics, Eteraz, The UK Today, Bloggerheads, Cunningtitle, Blairwatch, NotSausurre and Wolly Days have more. Also see this illustration at Beau Bo D'or.
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Posted by: Osama Saeed | October 03, 2006 at 06:45 PM
In the media's defence *cough* there has been a concerted by many British Asians to raise this issue and it got lots of coverage around the time Mirza's execution was delayed for a month.
The problem is that his situation is so all over the place, and the Pak govt is so uncooperative on the issue, that its become buried and therefore had to dredge up as newsworthy.
Us Asian media-wallahs too wrote in about this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1779234,00.html
to little avail.
Though, admittedly, the British media could make a bigger deal about this and pressurise the British govt to do something.
Hmmm... there has to be some way. Musharraf is just being a twat.
Posted by: Sunny | October 04, 2006 at 02:02 AM
ooooh god,yaa allah i wonder why this goverment are so selfish.why on eath will you kill an innocent person that has nothing to do with killing,and if it did.is there any prove to hang this innocent man after his entire life in prison.i appsouletly feel soory for such an innocent young man who was a tenage himself,that all his life shattered (it is almaost 18 years that he was in prison)half of his age.i hope the islamic religioun is not mis iterpretaed
Posted by: fawzia hussein | October 19, 2006 at 11:31 PM
I've got a question; In the statement of the victim's fathers, he showed a copy of the letter that he alleged being mailed from Mirza Tahir, seems like the letter is in Urdu. I'm not sure but if so, my question is that did Tahir know writing Urdu or didn't as I know its hard for British or US born kids to read or write Urdu. If he didn't know then it should be verified if the letter that BBC reporter was shown was in English or Urdu. If Urdu then who wrote that letter? May be the inspector who filed the FIR or some angels?
Posted by: Syed Javed | November 13, 2006 at 07:59 PM
WOW, this'll keep me busy for years. I've been subscribing to your RSS feed for months, but somehow I missed this great list.
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