Daily Times

LAHORE: District and Sessions judge Abid Hussain Qureshi halted the execution for Muhammad Saleem Ahmed, a severely mentally ill prisoner, on Saturday. He was due to be executed on Tuesday, November 7, in Central Jail, Lahore.

Saleem, 63, was arrested in Lahore on July 30, 2001, where he was accused of fatally shooting his sister, Nasreen Begum.

From the outset, doubts about his mental health were apparent at every stage of his trial and sentencing. The investigating officer testified that he was aware of Saleem’s mental illness through his neighbours. Even the trial court noticed on several occasions that he was “talking insane and did not have any orientation in time and space”. Nevertheless, the Lahore Mental Hospital declared him fit to stand trial in 2002.

He was sentenced to death in 2004. Since then, Saleem has been diagnosed “as a case of psychiatric illness” by the Punjab Institute of Mental Health and has been on anti-psychotic drugs since 2013. He remains in the psychiatric cells of Central Jail Lahore, having spent nearly 14 years on death row.

The National Commission on Human Rights also initiated an inquiry into his mental condition on Friday, and has asked the Punjab Prisons inspector general to file a reply within 72 hours.

The request for Saleem’s execution warrants was forwarded by jail authorities, despite the fact that they have kept him in isolation due to his erratic behaviour caused by his severe mental illness.

Saleem appealed to the Lahore High Court in 2013 where his state-appointed counsel did not challenge the prosecution’s version of the case and Saleem’s death sentence was upheld. The Supreme Court dismissed Saleem’s appeal in May this year, without being presented the facts of his mental illness. The mercy petition forwarded by the jail authorities was rejected on October 19, 2017.

For Imdad, the Prisons IG himself filed a review petition, stating, “[The] Islamic law prohibits the execution of a mentally challenged prisoner. Even otherwise, in addition to Islamic jurisprudence, Pakistan’s international human rights obligations categorically prohibit the execution of a mentally ill convict.”

Yet, mentally ill defendants repeatedly slip through the cracks in Pakistan’s criminal justice system. The lack of mental health treatment and training in the criminal justice system, as well as in Pakistan generally, means that many individuals never even get diagnosed. In fact, for many indigent mentally ill defendants, their first contact with a mental health professional is in jail.

The Supreme Court itself is cognizant of this, with Justice Umar Ata Bandial stating in May this year that it would “be unfair to punish the mentally ill”.

Pakistan has signed international treaties, such as the ICCPR, which prohibit the execution of mentally ill prisoners. The country’s compliance with its human rights obligations comes under review in less than 10 days at its UN Universal Periodic Review, where Pakistan’s representatives will have to explain meting out capital punishment to mentally ill prisoners like Khizar, Imdad, and Saleem.

JPP Executive Director Sarah Belal adds, “While we welcome the decision of the Sessions Court to halt Saleem’s execution for the time being, we are extremely concerned with the continued issuance of execution warrants for mentally ill defendants. Through Saleem’s case, there is a chance to plug the gaps that allow this to happen. Pulling mentally ill prisoners out of their isolation cells and sending them to the gallows serves no penal purpose.”

Published in Daily Times, November 5^th 2017.