Islamabad: An international group of psychiatrists called on Pakistan yesterday not to execute a prisoner suffering from schizophrenia, days before his temporary stay of execution is set to expire.
Lawyers and rights groups say convicted murderer Khizar Hayat, 55, cannot be executed as he cannot understand his crime and punishment.
The World Psychiatric Association said it was "extremely concerned" by the plans to execute Hayat, warning his death would be "an irreversible miscarriage of justice".
"After eight years of treatment with powerful anti-psychotic medications, his symptoms remain as serious as ever, leading to a diagnosis his schizophrenia is treatment resistant," the statement by association said.
Hayat, a former police officer, was sentenced to death in 2003 for shooting a colleague. He was diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia in 2008.
