This Article analyzes the 2021 judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the case of Mst. Safia Bano v. Home Department, Government of Punjab. The case has garnered significant local and international attention due to the Court’s ruling that a death sentence may not be carried out on a defendant who has a mental illness. Setting the case against the backdrop of Pakistan’s Islamic and colonial contexts, this article argues that the Supreme Court has reshaped the insanity defense in Pakistani law by placing the determination of a defendant’s mental state mainly in the hands of medical professionals. However, the Court’s reliance on medical professionals and the subsequent downplaying of the “moral capacity” element of the insanity defense—a determination of law made by courts—has created an obstacle for courts to punish offenders more stringently in future cases due to the popular belief that mental health professionals are ill-equipped to answer broader questions of justice for victims and society. The article recommends that this issue can be remedied by establishing an objective legal test for insanity that considers Islamic law, Pakistani precedent, and advances in medical science.

中文翻译：

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重塑巴基斯坦法律中的精神错乱：萨菲亚·巴诺案

本文分析了巴基斯坦最高法院2021年对Mst. 案的判决。 Safia Bano 诉旁遮普政府内政部。由于法院裁定患有精神疾病的被告不得执行死刑，该案引起了当地和国际的广泛关注。本文以巴基斯坦的伊斯兰和殖民背景为背景，认为最高法院通过将被告精神状态的确定主要交给医疗专业人员来重塑巴基斯坦法律中的精神错乱辩护。然而，法院对医疗专业人员的依赖以及随后淡化精神错乱抗辩中的“道德能力”要素（法院做出的法律决定），为法院在未来案件中更严厉地惩罚罪犯造成了障碍，因为民众普遍认为，相信心理健康专业人员没有能力回答更广泛的受害者和社会正义问题。文章建议，可以通过考虑伊斯兰法、巴基斯坦先例和医学科学进步，建立客观的精神错乱法律测试来解决这个问题。