DAVID Cameron has pressed his Pakistani counterpart over the case of a mentally ill Scot shot in the country while in a maximum security prison.

The Prime Minister has described the treatment of grandfather Mohammad Asghar, currently on death row after being found guilty of blasphemy, as "appalling".

UK authorities want Mr Asghar, from Edinburgh, to be returned to Britain.

It is understood that Mr Cameron raised his case with Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani Prime Minister, during a telephone call yesterday.

Mr Asghar, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to death in January after he wrote a number of letters in which he claimed to be the Prophet Mohammad.

The two leaders also discussed the situation in Afghanistan, following the withdrawal of UK troops this week after a 13-year mission in the country.