KARACHI: “Can a mentally ill person stand a chance for a fair trial in a court of law?” said secretary general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan I. A. Rehman during a discussion about the case of a schizophrenic person, Imdad Ali, at the HRCP head office on Thursday.

Imdad Ali, 50, a resident of Vihari, in south of Punjab, was sentenced to death after he was convicted of the murder of a cleric in 2001.

He had spent about 16 years in prison. During the proceedings of the case, his wife, Safia, raised the issue of his mental health.However, the case against him continued as the prosecution argued that he was able to answer questions.

Medical reports in 2013 and reports until Sep and Oct of this year found that he had psychotic problems needing treatment.

Recently, the SC ruled that “schizophrenia”, which Imdad suffers from, is “not a permanent mental disorder”. “It is, therefore, a recoverable disease, which, in all the cases, does not fall within the definition of ‘mental disorder’.”

The outrage following the order compelled the Supreme Court to review the previous order in the Imdad case and formed a medical board.

The review petition was filed by Imdad’s lawyers and the advocate general and the prosecutor general.

The medical board is said to submit its report to the SC.

The superior court maintained during the proceedings that it would be inappropriate to hang Imdad, if he was found mentally ill.

Pakistan has executed at least 425 people since reintroducing the death penalty in 2014, following the Army Public School massacre.

However, panellists at the discussion pointed towards the ‘retributive nature’ of punishments awarded to prisoners on death row, which they said were alarming if one was mentally ill and unable to defend him/herself.

Head of the Justice Project Pakistan, Sarah Belal, gave suggestions about the ongoing case.

Her statement was supported by the fact that Imdad Ali is in solitary confinement for the past three years.

Although it was done to protect him from prisoners, keeping him locked up was not going to help his case, she said.

“A similar case came to the Lahore High Court today, and it was dealt with exactly the same way. In other cases, some death row prisoners got executed and their medical records surfaced later,” she added.

Speaking about the records of prisoners in central jail for instance, Ms Belal added that most of these registers were handwritten and usually did not contain details of a prisoner’s health, mental health or anything.

She added that jails needed to be pressured into being more open so that they could be accessed by people and organisations that could make a difference.

Taking her point forward, project director at Legal Aid Society Barrister Haya Eeman Zahid said that the overall records of prison were discouraging.

“There are 80,000 prisoners in Sindh and about 76 per cent of these prisoners are undertrial with a dismal conviction rate of two per cent. In such a situation, the prisoners inside these cells are twice more likely to have mental disorders,” she added.

Speaking of her experience of visiting the central prison, she said that the prison’s ‘charya’ (psychiatric) ward had three barracks.

With little to no ventilation, the barracks faced frequent electricity breakdowns and the prisoners were all squashed together in these barracks, she added.

Once a week, a psychiatrist visits these cells and writes a weekly report on the mental condition of the inmates. As there is no informed data, she has been told that out of 6,000 inmates, only 14 have been classified as having mental disorders, which is unrealistic considering the conditions within the prison.

BBC Urdu reporter Shumaila Khan gave a much-needed insight into the Imdad Ali case, which she has been covering for quite some time.

Speaking to the HRCP members through a Skype call, she said: “I found no stigma in this case as has been discussed. Negligence is definitely there. But what’s important in this case is that he gets the help he needs as there is a scarcity of doctors inside the prison. Imdad’s wife, Safia, recently told me that she doesn’t want him to be released as he has killed his teacher. But she wants him to live.”

Senior psychiatrist Professor Haroon Ahmed said that most people had a misplaced idea of schizophrenia that it was a curable illness.

“It can improve with time, but the person suffering from it can’t be ‘cured’. This term is widely misleading,” he said.

He further added that, Sindh was the first province in the country to pass the Sindh Mental Health Act earlier in 2001 and then an amendment made it the Sindh Mental Health Act 2013. But the province has yet to take the basic steps in building the authority, he said.

Human rights activist I. A. Rehman concluded the discussion by adding that mental disorders could improve, if the facilities the mentally ill were taken to suited the standards of treatment.

“We don’t need a retributive justice; we need a reformative one,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2016

The story has been revised following a clarification sent by the Justice Project Pakistan.