Pakistan stays hanging of mentally ill man

PAKISTAN’S Supreme Court has issued a last minute reprieve to a mentally ill man set to face the gallows this week.

A Pakistani lawyer said that the Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Ali a mentally ill prisoner whose hanging was to take place later this week. Picture: AP.

PAKISTAN’S Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a mentally ill prisoner whose hanging was to take place later this week.

The case of 50-year-old Imdad Ali, convicted in 2001 of murdering a religious scholar, has drawn criticism from rights groups. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2008.

The Supreme Court rejected his appeal last week but his wife, Safia Bano, later filed a petition to spare his life.

Her lawyer, Iqbal Gilani, said on Monday a three-judge panel stayed Ali’s hanging for two weeks to give time to hear the petition. He says the petition will be heard in the second week of November.

Sara Bilal, director of the Justice Project rights group, says the development will positively affect many prisoners on death row in Pakistan.