Daily Times

The apex court will hear the case of Imdad Ali on Saturday (today) at the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry.

Mentally ill Imdad Ali was sentenced to death in 2001 over a cleric’s killing. The inmate’s condition has continued to worsen over time. Ali has repeatedly been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

A hearing of the case was fixed after Ali’s wife Safia filed an appeal at the top court’s human rights cell. The advocate general, prosecutor general and Ali’s counsel will be present at the hearing.

In 2016, the Supreme Court had upheld death penalty for Ali ruling that schizophrenia was ‘not a mental illness’ but a ‘recoverable disease’. A third death warrant of the inmate was not issued following a public outcry, the filing of a new petition and Punjab government review.

The SC had earlier ordered the constitution of a doctors’ panel to evaluate Ali’s condition and present findings in two weeks starting November 14, 2016. A hearing of the case was not conducted despite Ali undergoing an evaluation by the stipulated deadline till the latest development.

A 2013 medical report termed him ‘insane’. His most recent reported medical evaluations, conducted in 2016 found him exhibiting psychotic symptoms. A jail psychiatrist has deemed him ‘treatment-resistant’.

Pakistan is a signatory to international treaties like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which prohibit the execution of mentally ill prisoners. Islamic jurisprudence also proscribes such individuals from being executed.

Published in Daily Times, April 21^st 2018.