Islamabad, Sep 2 (IANS): Pakistani prison officials have missed Tuesday's court deadline to explain how they would hang a paraplegic.

Abdul Basit is paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair after an illness he contracted while in prison.

He was convicted six years ago of murder but maintains his innocence. He was to be hanged in Lahore last month but this was postponed.

A petition for his pardon was dismissed.

Hanging him would constitute cruel and degrading treatment, his lawyers told BBC.

They added that this was prohibited under Pakistani and international law.

Pakistan has executed more than 200 people since reintroducing the death penalty in December 2014.

At the time the government said it was a measure to combat terrorism after the Taliban massacred more than 150 people, most of them children, in a Peshawar school.

Pakistan's jail manual gives no instructions on how to execute disabled prisoners.

A high court judge told prison officials they had until September 1 to come up with specific steps if they were to be allowed to proceed with the execution of Basit.

Pakistan has the world's largest number of death row inmates, with more than 8,000 people reported to be awaiting execution, and it is on course to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world.