Jail authorities have received death warrant of a schizophrenic convict, Imdad Ali, who will be hanged on November 2.

MULTAN, Oct 27th: Jail authorities have received death warrant of a schizophrenic convict, Imdad Ali, who will be hanged on November 2. Jail Superintendent Vehari Syed Babar Ali told Aouth Punjab News we have received "Black warrant of Imdad Ali on Wednesday and he will be hanged on November 2nd ,2016 early in the morning.His blood relations will see him on November Ist in jail premises. "I don't know whether his review petition is pending or not", he said. Chief Minister's advisor on prison Chaudhry Arshad Saeed Arain also confirmed the issuance of death warrants of a schizophrenic convict Imdad Ali. Session Court Vehari has issued the death warrant for the execution of Imdad Ali(50), He said that since the apex court last week ruled that schizophrenia does not qualify as a mental disorder under the mental health laws – a verdict that cleared the way for his execution. Imdad Ali was sentenced to death in 2001 for killing his teacher who was a cleric. He served 14 years in prisons on death row,with 3 years solitary confinement in jail hospital  due to Paranoid schizophrenia a seriously debilitation mental illness which he was diagnosed with in 2013.

The authorities issued a death warrant for a schizophrenic condemned prisoner on Wednesday after the Supreme Court ruled that his schizophrenia is “not a permanent mental disorder”.

Lawyers and rights groups say convicted murderer Imdad Ali, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia while in prison in 2012, cannot be executed as he cannot understand his crime and punishment.

The death warrant was issued by a criminal court on the request of the Punjab government, said a statement by the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), which is providing Imdad Ali with counsel. He would now be executed on Nov 2 in a prison in Vehari, the JPP said.

Imdad, 50, was sentenced to death for the murder of a religious cleric in 2002. He had been sentenced to hang last month, but received a last minute stay of execution by the Supreme Court, before that expired last week.

Rights groups have slammed the ruling, with Amnesty International calling it “a deeply worrying development”.

Maya Foa, a director of Reprieve, last week called the Supreme Court ruling “outrageous” and said it flies in the face of accepted medical knowledge — including in Pakistan.

“It is terrifying to think that a mentally ill man like Imdad Ali could now hang because judges are pretending that schizophrenia is not a serious condition,” Foa said, demanding Pakistan’s president intervene.