By Fazal Sher

Copyright brecorder

ISLAMABAD: A local court on Thursday granted pre-arrest bail to human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari and her husband, Advocate Hadi Ali Chattha, in a case registered under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) over alleged anti-state comments posted on social media.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka announced the reserved verdict, approving bail for the couple in the case filed under Sections 9, 10, 11 and 26-A of PECA for posting anti-state comments on social media.

During the hearing, lawyers Riyasat Ali Azad and Chaudhry Naeem Ali Gujjar, President of the Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) represented Mazari and Chattha in court.

Riyasat Ali Azad read out the contents of the first information report (FIR) and argued that the sections applied were not justifiable. “This is a petition for pre-arrest bail. The court is not supposed to examine the merits of the case at this stage,” he argued.

“Even a basic reading of the FIR shows that the applied legal sections are not relevant here,” he added. Azad also referred to judgments by higher courts and said that the allegations against Chattha — mainly the act of retweeting a tweet Mazari — did not warrant arrest.

Azad further said that the FIR was based on a four-year-old incident and that no prior notice had been issued to either of the accused. “Neither Imaan nor Hadi were served any legal notice before the FIR,” said Azad.

“If the accused are sent to jail now, who will be held accountable for that period of incarceration?” he questioned, adding that even if a court mistakenly grants bail, there is still room for scrutiny during the trial.

Naeem Gujjar while arguing before the said that we (lawyers) are not just guardians of the law, we are its protectors. Invisible forces are at work here—when a lawyer raises their voice, false FIRs are registered against them, he alleged.

He said that we have read all the tweets in court; none contain objectionable content. The tweets only highlight injustice. I, as Bar President, say we stand with Imaan and Hadi, he said.

Prosecutor Sheikh Aamir while objecting to the defence lawyer arguments said that they claim the tweets are old, but all tweets presented in the file are from 2025. Both Imaan and Hadi were summoned and acknowledged the tweets, he added. However, they did not surrender their phones or other digital devices, Amir noted.

After hearing all arguments, the court reserved its verdict and later approved the pre-arrest bail applications of Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha.

The case was registered by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) against the two over their alleged controversial tweets.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025