UN experts on Sunday urged Pakistan not to carry out the "arbitrary execution" of a former police officer who suffers from mental illness.
The execution of Khizar Hayat, sentenced to death in 2003 for killing a colleague, was suspended by Pakistan's Supreme Court on Saturday, his legal team said, just three days before the 55-year-old was due to be hanged.
"The imposition of capital punishment on individuals with psychosocial disabilities is a clear violation of Pakistan's international obligations," said Agnes Callamard, UN expert on extrajudicial executions and Catalina Devandas, the special rapporteur on disabled rights.
Pakistan's Supreme Court will on Monday hold a hearing into whether the execution can go ahead, according to a press release from Justice Project Pakistan, an NGO handling Hayat's case.
The group welcomed the "timely intervention by the highest seat of justice in the land to prevent a wrongful execution," and also gave Khayat's age as 60.
Hayat, who has spent more .
