By Barbara Plett BBC correspondent, Islamabad

Mirza Tahir Hussain may win another reprieve

Mirza Tahir Hussain, from Leeds, has been sentenced to hang for killing a Pakistani taxi driver 18 years ago.

His execution was postponed after interventions by British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and members of the European parliament.

Mirza Tahir Hussain might still win one more month's reprieve but it is by no means certain he will escape death.

Mr Hussain has spent 18 years in prison here for a killing he claims was self-defence.

After several trials, Pakistan's High Court threw out his guilty verdict, citing flawed evidence.

Islamic law

But Mr Hussain was then retried by an Islamic court which sentenced him to death.

Under Islamic law the family of the victim can accept blood money rather than death.

Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, has granted time for negotiating such an agreement and he put senior members of his ruling party on the case.