ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday pondered over the fate of a death row prisoner suffering from schizophrenia.

The court deliberated on a question where to lodge a condemned prisoner on a death row if he was mentally sick and suffering from schizophrenia, but has not served out his sentence.

“What will be the consequence if the apex court declares that mentally ill convicts cannot be executed,” wondered Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan.

Justice Ahsan was member of a five-judge bench, headed by Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, which took up a review petition moved by the Punjab government. Imdad Ali, Kanizan Fatima Bibi and Ghulam Abbas are the other petitioners.

The petitioners have sought review of an Oct 19, 2015, judgement of the Supreme Court in which it held that the trial court, as well as the high court, had rightly convicted an appellant who was suffering from a mental disorder and that the apex court did not find any reason, or mitigating circumstances, to reduce the sentence.

“Should we place such convicts in senior citizens’ homes or shelter homes if the death sentence is commuted to life,” wondered Justice Ahsan.

He stated that prisoners suffering from mental disorders usually cannot survive on their own as they slip into an imaginary world where they keep themselves busy by engaging in endless debates.

Justice Malik sought expert opinions from Mowadat Hussain Rana, a retired brigadier, and Advocate Haider Rasul Mirza on a question as to why the death sentence of a prisoner suffering from schizophrenia should be commuted to a life term.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah wondered about the status of a conviction if the death sentence was commuted to life and whether the convict should be allowed to go home or complete the rest of the punishment.

Punjab govt’s plea

In its review petition, the Punjab government pleaded through Prosecutor General Rana Abdul Majeed that the 2015 apex court judgement had ignored the mental condition of the accused/convict, who was lunatic and suffering from schizophrenia.

The petition contended that the verdict was the result of misreading and non-reading of the evidence available. Furthermore, it ignored the international treaty prohibiting imposition of the death penalty on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder, the provincial government argued.

Kanizan Bibi had approached the Supreme Court with a plea for relief on grounds that she was schizophrenic.

She was convicted on a charge of murdering two sons of Khan Mohammad, her lover and father of five children, in Kamalia in July 1989. On the incitement of Kanizan Bibi and following a marriage proposal, Khan Mohammad killed his wife and three daughters.

Earlier, the court had held that it had to decide whether the execution of an inmate will be lawful if the convict had developed the disease two years before his date of execution.

In November 2017, a bench headed by then Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali had ordered the constitution of a three-member medical board of psychiatrists to examine Imdad Ali and submit its findings after medical assessment of the patient.

The same court had stayed the execution of Imdad Ali, a 50-year-old death row prisoner, the previous month by suspending the second black warrants. The previous warrants were issued on July 26, 2016.

The president had rejected his mercy petition on Nov 17, 2015.

In its order, the Supreme Court had ruled that mental problems like schizophrenia do not make irrelevant a sentence of death because such disorders cannot be called a permanent disease and are curable.

In its review petition, the Punjab government observed that the judgement had placed fetters on the definition of ‘schizophrenia’ and brought it into conflict with the medical definition recognised under the Mental Health Ordinance of 2001.

Sharia also prohibits the execution of a mentally challenged prisoner, the petition argued. This view was endorsed by Allama ibne Abideen, a jurist, in his book, Radd-al-Mukhtarala al-Dur al Mukhtar.

On the other hand, Justice Project Pakis­tan believes that mentally ill inmates were one of the most vulnerable classes of prisoners, stressing that Pakistan’s international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention against Torture (CAT) prevent it from executing such prisoners.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2020