Death sentence stayed

LAHORE
District and Sessions Court on Saturday stayed the death sentence of a ‘mentally-ill’ prisoner and adjourned the hearing until July 30.
Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a law firm working for prisoners’ rights, filed a case through accused Khizar Hayat’s mother, Iqbal Bano. The convict’s counsel told the judge that jail authorities had diagnosed that Khizar Hayat had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia in 2008. He was a police constable and arrested for killing a fellow cop. Shadbagh police had arrested him in October 2001 and trial court awarded him death in 2003.
The counsel said Khizar Hayat’s severe mental illness was well-documented and the jail’s own records admitted ‘severe psychosis’. She said it was deplorable that the government still planned to hang him. Executing mentally ill people was violation of Pakistani and international laws, she said and added that Hayat’s execution must be halted and he should be transferred to a hospital immediately. After hearing the arguments, the sessions judge stayed the death sentence of Khizar scheduled for July 28.
Meanwhile, An Anti-Terrorism Court on Saturday issued death warrants for three condemned prisoners. The prisoners included Samar Jan, Muhammad Riaz and Nasir Shahzad. They were convicted for committing murder in different cases. Samar Jan was convicted in 1996, Nasir Shahzad in 1998 while Muhammad Riaz was convicted in 2006.