Pakistan's Supreme Court Executes Mentally Vulnerable Individuals

By: Shivani Verma

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has paved the way for execution of mentally ill individuals by ruling that schizophrenia does not qualify as a “mental disorder.”[1]

In 2001, Imdad Ali was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering a religious scholar.[2] In 2012, at the age of 50, Ali was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and psychosis.[3] Doctors stated that Ali’s illnesses impaired his ability to think rationally and make decisions.[4] Nevertheless, Pakistan’s highest court denied Ali’s final appeal.[5] The Court ruled that Ali’s execution was not against the law because schizophrenia does not qualify as a mental disorder.[6] According to the Court, Ali’s schizophrenia was not a permanent condition.[7] Rather, his condition varied with his “level of stress.”[8] Therefore, schizophrenia is a recoverable disease, and does not necessarily fall under the definition of mental disorder.[9] Pakistan’s Supreme Court scheduled Ali to be hung in late 2016, even though doctors concluded that his illness was “‘treatment resistant.’”[10] The claim that schizophrenia is not a mental illness goes against accepted medical knowledge and Pakistan’s own mental health laws.[11] There are records indicating Ali was referred for mental health treatment a year before the alleged murder but that the illness was not mentioned in the court ruling sentencing him to death.[12]

According to a panel of experts on the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), imposing the capital punishment on individuals who suffer a psychosocial disability is a violation of the death penalty safeguards. Imposing the death penalty under these conditions is “a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.”[13] The United Nation’s human rights office asked Pakistan’s government to stop Ali’s execution and to conduct a new trial that complies with international standards.[14] Ali’s case continues to be before the Supreme Court in 2017.[15]

Ali’s case was neither the first nor the last time Pakistan’s Supreme Court has been insensitive towards the mentally ill. Earlier, this same court admitted that a large number of the nation’s prisoners suffer from mental illness and its authorities “cannot let everyone go.”[16]

Earlier this year, the World Psychiatric Association warned Pakistan against executing another severely mentally ill man.[17] January 17, 2017, was the scheduled hanging of Khizar Hayat, a 55-year-old former police officer.[18] Hayat’s case is in Lahore High Court.[19] The Court has stayed the execution.[20] The judge, Shahid Hameed Dar, said it would be "unjust" to proceed on Hayat's case without waiting for the Supreme Court's decision on Imdad Ali’s case.[21] Hayat was sentenced to death in 2003 for shooting a colleague.[22] In 2008, Hayat was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.[23] After eight years of continuous treatment, Hayat’s symptoms have not improved.[24] His treatment included powerful anti-psychotic medications.[25] After seeing no improvement in Hayat’s condition, doctors concluded that his schizophrenia is treatment resistant.[26] Other prisoners have beaten and harassed Hayat because of his mental illness.[27] In 2010, a medical officer recommended that Hayat be transferred to a mental hospital.[28] Hayat showed signs of injuries, and a fellow prisoner reported that other prisoners were beating Hayat because of his mental illness.[29] When his lawyers expressed concerns after Hayat suffered a “deep wound” by another inmate, a prison official responded that “such incidents are very normal in the prisons that houses 4,000 prisoners.”[30]

The United Nations again pressured Pakistan to protect its mentally ill inmates. The United Nations concluded that Hayat has "psychosocial disabilities".[31] In July, a court-mandated medical board confirmed that Hayat suffers from a mental illness.[32] Hayat's mother, Iqbal Bano, pleaded to Pakistan’s President, Mamnoon Hussain, to pardon her son.[33] "My son needs medical treatment, not execution," she told The Associated Press.[34]

Kanizan Bibi’s case is another example of how the Pakistani government remains merciless to individuals suffering from mental illness.[35] Bibi was convicted because she falsely confessed to murder after being tortured by police for days.[36] Kanizan Bibi has been on death row for twenty-six years.[37] During this time, her mental health has deteriorated significantly.[38] For the last eight years, she has been mute.[39] There are times when she is unable to feed or clothe herself.[40] When family members visit, she does not recognize them.[41] Despite two medical boards diagnosing Bibi with schizophrenia, the President has rejected her mercy plea.[42]

From 2008 through 2014, Pakistan ceased executions due to pressure from international human rights groups.[43] However, On December 17, 2014 Pakistan lifted its seven-year moratorium on the death penalty following a terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar in December 2014.[44] The attack killed 150 people.[45] Nearly all of the victims were children.[46]

Initially, the resumption of executions only applied to individuals convicted of terrorist offenses.[47] However, within several months of the resumption and without public justification, the Interior Ministry lifted the moratorium for all death penalty-eligible crimes.[48] Now, more than 8,000 individuals are at risk of execution.[49] Many of these execution-eligible offenses are ineligible for the capital punishment under international law.[50]

Since ending the moratorium in December 2014, Pakistan has executed more than 400 people.[51] This rate of execution is the highest in Pakistan’s history and making it the “third most prolific executioner in the world.”[52] To put things into perspective, Pakistan has executed an average of 6 people every week since the death penalty was reinstated.[53]

On April 28 2015, an extremely mentally ill man became the 100th prisoner executed since the moratorium's end.[54] Muneer Hussein suffered serious mental illness his entire life.[55] Despite numerous indicators, Hussein remained undiagnosed until his new counsel retained a psychiatrist in 2014.[56] Hussein’s previous counsel failed to request a medical examination at trial. Even upon a formal diagnosis, the Pakistani government took Hussein’s life.[57]

Death row is no place for mentally vulnerable individuals. In addition to individuals suffering from mental illness, Pakistan continues to hold juveniles on death row.[58] The Human Rights Committee maintains that holding juveniles on death row is cruel and inhuman punishment. Holding juveniles on death row also violates a treaty, which provides that “juvenile offenders shall be segregated from adults and be accorded treatment appropriate to their age and legal status in so far as conditions of detention are concerned.”[59] Nevertheless, case after case details instances in which Pakistan violates its international obligations.

[1] See Lizzie Dearden, Pakistan Supreme Court rules schizophrenia 'not a mental disorder' allowing mentally ill, Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/imdad-ali-pakistan-death-penalty-execution-supreme-court-schizophrenia-not-a-mental-disorder-un-a7372261.html (Oct. 20, 2016).

[2] See Pakistan sets date for execution of mentally ill prisoner, u.s. news, https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2016-10-26/pakistan-sets-date-for-execution-of-mentally-ill-prisoner (Oct. 20, 2016).

[3] See Lizzie Dearden, supra note 1. 

[4] See Id.

[5] See Pakistan sets date for execution of mentally ill prisoner, supra note 2.

[6] See Lizzie Dearden, supra note 1. 

[7] See Id.

[8] See Id.

[9] See Id.

[10] See Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] See Id.

[15] See Doctors warn Pakistan’s Supreme Court over executing mentally ill, Reprieve, http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/doctors-warn-pakistans-supreme-court-executing-mentally-ill/ (Jan. 27, 2017).

[16] Lizzie Dearden, supra note 1.

[17] See Doctors warn Pakistan’s Supreme Court over executing mentally ill, supra note 15.

[18] See Pakistan court stays Khizar Hayat's execution, Aljazeera, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/pakistan-court-stays-khizar-hayat-execution-170112150841304.html (Jan. 12, 2017).

[19] Id.

[20] Id.

[21] Id.

[22] Id.

[23] See Doctors warn Pakistan’s Supreme Court over executing mentally ill, supra note 15.

[24] See Id.

[25] See Id.

[26] See Id.

[27] See Allard K. Lowenstein, A “MOST SERIOUS CRIME” PAKISTAN'S UNLAWFUL USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY, Yale Law School, https://law.yale.edu/system/files/area/center/schell/2016_09_23_pub_dp_report.pdf (Sept. 2016).

[28] Id. at 38.

[29] Id.

[30] Id.

[31] See Doctors warn Pakistan’s Supreme Court over executing mentally ill, supra note 15.

[32] See Pakistan court stays Khizar Hayat's execution, supra note 18.

[33] See id.

[34] Id.

[35] See Allard K. Lowenstein, supra note 27 at 33.

[36] See id. at 21.

[37] Id. at 33.

[38] Id.    

[39] Id.

[40] Id.

[41] Id.

[42] Id.

[43] See Pakistan sets date for execution of mentally ill prisoner, supra note 2.

[44] See Allard K. Lowenstein, supra note 27 at 2.

[45] See Pakistan sets date for execution of mentally ill prisoner, supra note 2.

[46] Id.

[47] See Allard K. Lowenstein, supra note 27 at 2.

[48] Id.

[49] Id.

[50] Id.

[51] Id.

[52] Id.

[53] Id.

[54] Id. at 34.

[55] Id.

[56] Id.

[57] Id.

[58] Id. at 38.

[59] Id. at 38.