'World's worst executioners'

Pakistan was set to execute a disabled man today as activists said it was nearing its 300th hanging in under a year, and Amnesty International slammed Islamabad for "shamefully sealing its place among the world's worst executioners".

The execution of Abdul Basit, a paraplegic who was convicted of murder in 2009, has already been postponed several times after rights groups raised concerns about how a wheelchair-bound man would mount the scaffold.

A prison official confirmed to AFP that it has been scheduled again for todaymorning.

"His family has been informed," the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that a final meeting between Basit and his relatives had been arranged for late yesterday.

Pakistan's Human Rights Commission said it had written to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif seeking to stay the execution, adding that prison authorities were still awaiting an answer from the government on how to proceed with the hanging.

In a statement yesterday, Amnesty said it had recorded 299 executions in Pakistan since the death penalty was controversially reinstated following a Taliban mass killing at a school in Peshawar last December.

"Pakistan will imminently have executed 300 people since it lifted a moratorium on executions, shamefully sealing its place among the world's worst executioners," the statement said.