Pakistan postpones execution of paraplegic death-row convict

A prison official says Pakistani authorities have postponed the execution of the country’s first known paraplegic convict on death-row, about an hour before he was to be hanged.

Prison official Mohammad Safdar says a magistrate made the decision after talking to Abdul Basit, 43, who was to be hanged before dawn of Tuesday.

Basit has been paralyzed from the waist down since contracting meningitis in prison in 2010 and uses a wheelchair. He has been on death row since 2009, convicted of murdering a man in a financial dispute.

Basit’s sister Shugufta Sultana told The Associated Press that the family was waiting outside the prison on Tuesday when they were told of the postponement.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea to grant a stay of execution for Basit.