Lahore:
A Pakistani soldier convicted of murder was hanged early on Thursday in the country's first execution for four years, officials said.
Mohammad Hussain was condemned to death by a court martial in February 2008 for killing a superior over a personal dispute and was hanged at Mianwali jail after clemency pleas were rejected.
Pakistan has had an unofficial moratorium on executions in recent years, with President Asif Ali Zardari regularly issuing stay orders for condemned prisoners.
"Mohammad Hussain was executed in the presence of military officers," Farooq Nazeer, chief of prisons in the central province of Punjab, said, adding the army chief had rejected his petition for mercy.
Nazeer said the hanging was not a civilian execution and the government does not intervene in military cases. He said the last execution in Pakistan was in November 2008, soon after the end of military rule.