RAWALPINDI (The Thursday Times) — An anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi on Thursday sentenced human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband, lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, to 10 years in prison each in the so-called security breach case, the second conviction this year for the couple.
The case, registered at Islamabad’s Aabpara police station, accuses the couple of posing a security risk by interfering with security arrangements during the visit of the England cricket team in October 2024, when they were accused of removing barriers on a route closed for the team’s convoy.
Their lawyer, Aimal Mandokhail, had asked the court to postpone the verdict because the couple’s petitions were pending before the Supreme Court and the high court, including an application to transfer the case. “The decision should be postponed until the petitions pending before the Supreme Court and high court are decided,” he said, arguing that the court could not legally announce its decision while those applications were under consideration, Geo News reported.
A jail trial
The couple were tried inside jail and indicted on October 7 on charges that included terrorism-related provisions and incitement to public unrest, Dawn reported. In statements recorded on October 27, they said the case was “nothing more than harassment” for their legal and human rights work. On Monday they asked the Supreme Court to overturn an October 19 Islamabad High Court order refusing to stay the trial, while the high court was still considering their appeal against the inclusion of terrorism charges.
In jail since January
The couple have been in jail since January 23, when they were arrested over a protest outside the Islamabad High Court. A day later, a sessions court in Islamabad sentenced them to a cumulative 17 years under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act over posts on X that prosecutors said incited ethnic divisions and accused the military of involvement in terrorism, charges they deny. On September 17, the Supreme Court suspended those sentences and ordered their release on bail pending their appeals, but police arrested them hours later in a separate case over an anti-government protest in March 2025. Her mother, Shireen Mazari, said the couple never left Adiala jail.
Imaan Mazari, the daughter of former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, is known for representing victims of enforced disappearances, Baloch and Pashtun activists and blasphemy accused. More than a dozen international rights organisations have urged Pakistan to release the couple and UN experts have criticised their convictions, and the couple have called the cases against them harassment for their human rights work.
