LAHORE: The wife of a schizophrenic condemned prisoner has urged the Supreme Court to decide the review petition challenging execution of Imdad Ali as it has been pending adjudication for almost one year.

The Supreme Court had dismissed an appeal of Ali against his execution with an observation that “schizophrenia is not a mental illness but a recoverable disease” and, thus, cleared the way for the 51-year-old’s execution.

However, the court in a review petition stayed the execution for the third time and also ordered that a newly-formed medical board would evaluate the case to clarify the extent of his mental illness and to submit its findings in two weeks in November last.

The court had observed that the board’s findings would be used to determine whether Imdad Ali was fit to be executed.

Safia Bano, the petitioner, stated in an application filed before the court that the medical examination of the condemned prisoner had been conducted and there was no impediment or any procedural requirement which could delay the hearing of the review petition.

The petitioner asked the court to fix hearing of the review petition at the earliest and decide the case in the interest of justice.

Imdad Ali had been repeatedly diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and a 2013 medical report stated him to be “insane.” His most recent reported medical evaluations in September and October 2016 found him to be suffering from psychotic symptoms actively and a psychiatrist at the prison deemed him “a treatment-resistant case.”

Sentenced to death in 2001 in a shooting case, Ali has spent 16 years on death row, with four years in solitary confinement in the jail hospital due to his disease. His condition has worsened since then.

Rights activists say Ali’s case offers an opportunity to the authorities to address lacuna in the criminal justice system.

Justice Project Pakistan’s Executive Director Sarah Belal says, “the mentally challenged cannot control their disease but their disease controls them, and this vulnerability should only strengthen the legal safeguards protecting them.” She says through Ali’s case, the SC has the chance to substantially reform Pakistan’s criminal justice system and its handling of the mentally ill defendants on death row. Ali’s condition warrants medical treatment, not the gallows, she adds.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2017