Death penalty verdict

After a long battle by human rights groups, led by Justice Project Pakistan, the Supreme Court has ordered that persons who are mentally insane cannot be sentenced to death and should instead receive treatment in a mental facility when possible. The Supreme Court ordered the release of Kanizan Bibi and Imdad Ali, who had been sentenced to death for murder, but suffered schizophrenia and were therefore ruled by the court to be unfit for execution. Kanizan Bibi has been on death row for nearly 20 years, and was 16 when she apparently murdered the wife of her employer and their children. She has not spoken a word for many years and her family says she only stares blankly into the distance, giving an insight into her mental state. Imdad Ali, also in prison for many years, had murdered a cleric but as he suffered schizophrenia, there is no indication that he understood the meaning or the reasons for his action.

In such circumstances, the court has ruled that persons should not be sent to the gallows and has ordered treatment for both the prisoners who will now be set free from jail. Orders had been given previously, several years ago, for Imdad Ali to be hanged, but these were not carried out. A third prisoner whose mental condition had not been mentioned by jail authorities in the plea for mercy could also benefit from the latest ruling, with the court ordering that the plea be re-entered with all the details provided in it.

The decision has been welcomed by human rights groups across the country. Most nations and many international conventions bar the death sentence for people who are mentally unwell – particularly when they are in no condition to understand what they are doing. The death penalty should be used sparingly, if at all, to avoid precisely these kinds of situations. The hangman’s noose is irreversible and we cannot have confidence that the correct decision is reached.

When the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted, we were told it was needed to eliminate dangerous militants and punish those guilty of the most heinous crimes. Instead, it seems to have been used rather indiscriminately. And justice in any case should ideally seek to be rehabilitative rather than retributive. We should try to be a society that treats everyone with compassion rather than being blinded by vengeance. For this reason, Pakistan has done the right thing by ensuring that these people are not executed. Instead they should receive whatever help they need. In the past too the issue has been brought up but not acted on by the courts. Now that action has been taken, we can only hope that there will be a further shift towards deciding who should go to the gallows and who should be spared.