Court stays execution of man suffering from schizophrenia

Pakistan’s top court on Monday decided to stay the execution of a man suffering from schizophrenia scheduled for Wednesday, the man’s counsel, Syed Iqbal Gilani, said.

Imdad Ali, 50, was convicted for the murder of a cleric.

The human rights organisation, Justice Project Pakistan, confirmed that he has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia since 2002.

Another hearing is now planned for the second week of November.

The court had confirmed the death sentence, only 10 days ago, arguing that schizophrenia is not a “permanent mental illness.’’

“The findings of the court that schizophrenia can be treated is against medical science,’’ Gilani said he argued in his petition.

Pakistan lifted a six-year unofficial moratorium on the death penalty after Islamist militants killed over 150 people, mostly children, at a school in the north-western city of Peshawar in December 2014.

According the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, over 420 of an estimated 8,000 death row prisoners have since been hanged in the country.

Pakistan is signatory to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD), an international convention that guarantees the dignity of individuals with disabilities.