The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) on Thursday granted bail to lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband advocate Hadi Ali Chattha, pending the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision on their applications seeking suspension of their sentences in a social media posts case.
The couple was sentenced in January to a combined 17 years in prison on multiple charges related to social media posts. The prosecution had argued that the posts amounted to an anti-state narrative under cybercrime laws.
During Thursday’s hearing, Additional Attorney General Rana Asad opposed the bail, arguing that the IHC had yet to decide the matter and remained the appropriate forum for suspension of sentence under Section 426.
“The High Court has not yet issued any decision against us. Seven opportunities were provided before the trial court,” Asad said.
Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan questioned the repeated adjournments before the IHC and observed that the high court judge will mention the SC’s order in the case before adjourning the proceedings again.
“Then, when the case comes before the SC, a new date is fixed in the High Court. The IHC is, in its own way, preventing the SC from functioning,” Justice Afghan said.
He also asked what had happened after the SC’s first order in the case.
Advocate Faisal Siddiqui told the court that the SC had issued its first order on May 12, directing the IHC to decide the applications within two weeks. He then read out the order sheets from several hearings before the IHC.
Siddiqui also referred to repeated adjournments before the IHC and recalled a remark by former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa that a case should only be adjourned if the judge or lawyer died. The lawyer stated that the IHC had adjourned the matter several times and that the high court registrar’s office had rejected their request for an early hearing.
“What happened at the High Court came as a surprise to us,” Siddiqui said.
Justice Afghan also noted that both Imaan and Chattha were lawyers and said the court was respecting their dignity. “Both are lawyers; we are respecting their dignity. Tell them too to observe the decorum of the court,” he said, adding that there was a difference between a lawyer and an ordinary person.
The SC’s decision came a day after representatives of the Islamabad Bar Council (IBC), Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) and Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) called for an early hearing and decision on the couple’s appeals.
At a joint press conference on Wednesday, IBC Vice-Chairman Asif Irfan said that the delay was denying Imaan and Chattha their constitutional right to a fair trial. He added that the judiciary was the institution responsible for resolving disputes between the state and citizens over fundamental rights, but alleged that it appeared to have failed to perform this role.
Irfan stated that lawyers had always stood at the forefront of upholding the Constitution and had never sought court verdicts through mob pressure. He added that neither Imaan nor Chattha had asked the lawyers’ bodies to secure a ruling through such means.
The IHC had fixed September 8 for hearing the couple’s applications seeking suspension of their sentences, but the hearing was adjourned without proceedings.
The couple was arrested on January 23 near the underpass outside the Serena Hotel while travelling to the district courts and was later sent on a 14-day judicial remand by an anti-terrorism court.
A district and sessions court later sentenced both to 17 years’ rigorous imprisonment each. The sentences included five years under Section 9 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), along with a Rs5 million fine; 10 years under Section 10, along with a Rs30 million fine; and two years under Section 26-A, along with a Rs1 million fine.
The judgment also provided for additional imprisonment in case of non-payment of the fines. The court acquitted the couple of the PECA hate-speech charge under Section 11, noting that prosecution witnesses did not support the allegation.
