The Supreme Court on Monday ordered fresh medical examination of two mentally-ill death-row prisoners and asked the amici curiae to submit their expert opinion on mental illnesses and the national and international jurisprudence.
Hearing petitions of three mentally-ill death row prisoners, a larger bench of the apex court headed by Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik constituted a medical board comprising renowned mental health experts to evaluate the condition of Kanizan Bibi and Ghulam Abbas.
The bench directed the board to submit its report in three weeks. The court had also accepted the review petition of prisoner Imdad Ali at an earlier hearing. The court asked the amici curiae to apprise the court of their opinion in the context of Section 84 of the Pakistan Penal Code, and Sections 464 and 465 of the Criminal Procedure Code at the next hearing on October 19.
The medical board is headed by Prof Dr Rizwan Taj, head of Psychiatry at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Islamabad. It also includes Prof Dr Altaf Qadir Khan, head of Psychiatry at the Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Lahore.
The other members are Dr Ali Madeeh Hashmi. Professor of Psychiatry at the King Edward Medical University, Lahore; Dr Saima Dawood Khan, Professor of Psychology, University of Punjab, Lahore and Prof Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan of the University of Peshawar, Peshawar.
The bench directed amicus curiae Dr Mowadat Hussain Rana to assist the court on the types of mental disorders and the accuracy of detecting mental illnesses at a later stage after the trial.
It sought expert opinion of another amicus curiae, Advocate Haider Rasul Mirza, on interpreting domestic laws, which dealt with the soundness of mind of accused in line with scientific developments and international jurisprudence on the status of mental illnesses developed in jail after conviction.
The bench said that the amici curiae should assist on whether the offenders could make distinction between good and bad, whether mental illness begins before or after committing crime, how many types of mental illness were there and could a person with mental illness understand the court proceedings against him?
Sitting on the bench, Justice Manzoor Malik said if the date of execution had been set but the convict suffered a heart attack and went to hospital, could he still be hanged? Justice Mansoor Ali Shah asked in the context of modern science and criminal system, whether a mentally-ill person could be hanged.
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