Mirza Tahir Hussain has spent 18 years on death row

Mirza Tahir Hussain was acquitted of killing a taxi driver when he was 18 but an Islamic court sentenced him to death on the victim's family wishes.

He had been due to be hanged on 1 June, his 36th birthday, but was granted an indefinite stay of execution on Monday.

Amjad Hussain described his brother's plight as "like a nightmare that never seems to end".

"I hope the sooner it's over the better," he said. "It's an utter nightmare, sheer hell. You cannot imagine what my brother has been through."

'Self defence'

Mr Hussain's family appealed directly to President Pervez Musharraf to intervene in the case but said they would not give up until his brother was back in the UK.

Under Islamic law, the families of the dead taxi driver and Mr Hussain must reach agreement on how the case is to be settled, usually by some form of compensation.

"He's lost so much family time, he's lost this precious moment of his life, 18 years of his life, and whatever he did he did it in self defence," Mr Hussain said.

"Why would somebody go all the way from the UK just to murder a taxi driver? What was there to rob him of? It's just been a disgrace the way the prosecution has portrayed his case."

The family appealed for clemency to President Musharraf

The family said the taxi driver pulled out a gun and tried to physically and sexually assault him. In the scuffle that followed the gun went off, fatally injuring the taxi driver.

Hussain was tried and convicted of murder but, following an appeal, the death penalty was revoked and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

A second appeal saw him acquitted of all charges against him by the High Court.

But when the case was re-opened in 1998 and he was re-tried under Sharia law by the Federal Shariat Court, the High Court's decision was reversed and he was sentenced to death again.

The case to stop his execution was taken up by the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, who made representations at the highest levels in Pakistan, local MPs Greg Mullholland and John Battle and North West England MEP Sajjad Karim.