A recent Supreme Court ruling that schizophrenia is not a mental illness has triggered a considerable controversy. It has invited criticism from many including the reputed amnesty International that too has protested a "reprehensible" ruling by Supreme Court of Pakistan that said schizophrenia is "not a permanent mental disorder".
Lawyers and rights groups argue 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. However, in a detailed judgement issued Thursday the Supreme Court said schizophrenia was an "imbalance", exacerbated by stress that could be treated by drugs.
Therefore it was a "recoverable disease" and not a mental disorder, according to the ruling. As such, it could not be used to delay Ali's death sentence, which now could go ahead as early as next week.
This controversy, however, requires the intervention of experts.
Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion and behaviour, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusions and a sense of mental fragmentation.
It also shows a mentality or approach characterised by inconsistent or contradictory elements.