Abdul Basit: Pakistan postpones execution of disabled man because he couldn't stand up at the gallows | Asia | News | The Independent

Pakistani jail authorities postponed executing a prisoner who is in a wheelchair an hour before he was due to be hanged because prison rules did not make it clear how they should proceed, his lawyers said.

Abdul Basit was to have been hanged in the eastern city of Faisalabad on Tuesday morning, but authorities were stymied at the last minute because he could not walk to the gallows as required by the jail manual.

"When the judicial magistrate came to the hanging, these guys tried to make him (Basit) stand at the gallows ... it wasn't possible, so the magistrate postponed the hanging," said Wassam Waheed, a spokesman for legal aid group Justice Project Pakistan.

On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Basit, but only if it could be carried out in line with jail rules.
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Since then, 239 people have been hanged, although few have any links to militancy. Most, like Basit, were convicted of murder. Many of their families say they were falsely accused and too poor to get good lawyers or pay bribes. 

According to the BBC,

Campaigners say there is a danger that the hanging could go wrong and end up being a breach of the prisoner's dignity - which is protected by Pakistani laws.

"The rules presume that the convict [can] walk up to the gallows, which is not possible in Abdul Basit's case," Wassam Waheed, a spokesman for Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) told the BBC.

Abdul Basit: Pakistan postpones execution of disabled man because he couldn't stand up at the gallows | Asia | News | The Independent