CJP Nisar halts execution of inmate with mental illness

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Saturday took notice of media reports and halted the planned execution of a mentally ill prisoner at the Kot Lakhpat jail.

According to the details, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar temporally suspended the sentence of Khizer Hayat, a mentally ill death row prisoner and set January 14 for hearing the case.

A district and sessions judge on Friday had scheduled the execution of  Khizer Hayat for January 15 at the Kot Lakhpat jail.

Earlier in the day,  the death row prisoner’s mother had pleaded the apex court for the suspension of his son’s execution on the humanitarian grounds and said that Khizer Hayat was suffering from mental illness.

Khizer Hayat’s mother submitted her plea before the apex court’s human rights cell calling the SC’s attention to the fact that a mentally ill inmate was being hanged.

It is pertinent to mention here that Khizer Hayat was awarded death penalty in 2003 for killing his fellow police officer. However he has spent around 15 years in jail and was first diagnosed as a schizophrenic in 2008 by the jail authorities.

A police medical officer, in 2010, hand recommended that Khizer Hayat should be shifted to psychiatric hospital for treatment.

A two-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik and Justice Sardar Tariq Masoof will hear the case on January 14.