The Lahore High Court on Thursday issued stay order to suspend the execution of a 'paranoid schizophrenic' death row prisoner, Khizar Hayat. A division bench headed by Justice Shahid Hameed Dar suspended the black warrants issued by the district and sessions judge Lahore while hearing a petition filed by Hayat's mother, Iqbal Bano, through Barrister Sarah Belal of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP).
Earlier the petitioner's counsel argued that Hayat had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and executing him would violate local and international laws. She, Barrister Sarah Belal, pointed out that a petition against the execution of Hayat was already pending before the same bench wherein a reply from home department had been sought but the jail authorities obtained black warrants of the prisoner.
She said that the high court previously staying the execution of Hayat had formed a medical board to determine his health. The board had confirmed that the prisoner was not fit for execution, she added. The counsel asked the court to suspend the death warrants and stay the execution of Hayat set for January 17. The court observed that it would be appropriate to wait for the decision by Supreme Court in case of another mentally-ill condemned prisoner, Imdad Ali, to determine how to proceed in Hayat's case. Hayat was a police constable and convicted for killing a fellow cop.
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