08 October 2004	Friday	22 Shaban 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 7: Noted psychiatrist Dr Bashir Ahmad, on Thursday informed the Peshawar High Court that a juvenile offender on death row had been suffering from schizophrenia.

Dr Ahmad, serving in the Peshawar Mental Hospital, stated before a two-member bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Qaim Jan Khan that the boy had been under his observation for one month and he was a schizophrenic.

The boy, Alahamdulillah, has been in prison since January 1995 after he was arrested on charges of killing another boy. He was sentenced to death by the trial court in 2000, whereas the high court had dismissed his appeal in 2003.

An interesting situation has now emerged as during the pendency of his appeal before the high court the government had commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment in 2002 in the light of a presidential notification whereby death sentences of all the juvenile offenders were to be commuted to life imprisonment.

When the high court was informed about the situation the court constituted a medical board for determining his age.The medical board confirmed that he was a juvenile offender.

It also informed the court that the boy was a schizophrenic. Following that information the court had summoned Mr Ahmad for clarifying the situation. Mr Ahmad stated that he had gone through the treatment record of the convict since 1993 and he had no doubt in confirming that he was suffering from mental ailment.

The bench adjourned the hearing directing the two parties to argue the case on next hearing on the grounds what should the bench do when the boy was a juvenile and suffering from the ailment.

Advocate Asthagfirullah Khan appeared for the offender on the court's order as he is poor and could not afford hiring a counsel. He stated that it had now been proved that he could not be awarded death sentence under the law.

The bench observed that it had now to consider different aspects of the case. Conflicting age of the boy was recorded in different documents which complicated his case.

According to the report of the medical board constituted on the order of the high court, the present age of the boy is 19 years, which meant that he was only 10 years at the time he committed the offence. The board also observed that the offender appeared to be suffering from schizophrenia.