ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa on Monday stayed the execution of a mentally ill prisoner, Ghulam Abbas, who was to be hanged on June 18.

The CJP gave the directions on an application filed by the Justice Project Pakistan, a human rights law firm, after the Punjab Home Department didn’t allow an independent psychiatrist and two government doctors to visit Adiala Jail and evaluate Abbas.

Imprisoned in 2004, Abbas was sentenced to death on May 31, 2006, by a district and sessions court for stabbing a neighbour.

He has spent more than 13 years on the death row and a new mercy petition has been filed requesting the president to grant him a reprieve.