Imaan | Pakistan

The counsel appointed by the court for lawyer and rights activist Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Advocate Hadi Ali Chattha, in a case pertaining to controversial social media posts refused to cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses on Tuesday, saying that he could not “ask questions dictated” to him. He also alleged that he was not given enough time to prepare for the case, which was registered by the National Cybercrime Investigation Agency (NCCIA). Mazari and Chattha have been accused of attempting to incite divisions on linguistic grounds through social media posts and of creating the impression that the armed forces were engaged in terrorism within the country in the case. Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammed Afzal Majoka resumed proceedings in the case in Islamabad today, where court-appointed defence counsel Advocate Shakeel Jatt alleged he was approached at around 4pm yesterday to represent Imaan and Chattha. He said that he had not been provided the case file to prepare in tim...

Former minister Shireen Mazari said on Saturday that a “heavily armed raiding party” of the Islamabad police had surrounded her house at 1am and enquired about her daughter, Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, and son-in-law, Hadi Ali Chattha. “At 1am this morning, a heavily armed raiding party of ICT police from Secretariat thana (police station) surrounded my home and asked for Imaan and Hadi. They were not there, and we informed them of the same. Cops said they had an FIR (first information report) against them and they should report to the thana. Eventually they left,” she posted on X. In a subsequent post, she referred to a protest at the Islamabad High Court yesterday, where Imaan — who is a lawyer and rights activist — and others had raised slogans in support of judicial independence. The lawyers had staged a protest on the premises of the IHC to oppose the suspension of Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri from judicial work. Isl­a­mabad Bar Council member Ale­­em Abbasi, ex-president of the Islamabad High Court Ba...