Islamabad court grants bail to Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha in road-blockade case
An Islamabad anti-terrorism court has granted bail to lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha in a case over an alleged road blockade and clash with police, days after the couple were sentenced to ten years in prison in a separate case.
An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad has granted bail to human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband, fellow lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, in a case registered against them over an alleged road blockade and a clash with police in the federal capital.
Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Abual Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain heard the bail applications on Tuesday and approved them against surety bonds of Rs5,000 each. Lawyer Riasat Ali Azad appeared on behalf of the accused, while police presented the case record during the proceedings.
The case was registered at Islamabad's Kohsar Police Station and concerns a protest in the grounds of the National Press Club, during which the participants were accused of taking out a rally, blocking a road and obstructing police officers from carrying out their duties.
According to the first information report, the protest involved members of a Baloch student council and at least 150 demonstrators. The FIR was filed under sections 186, 188, 341, 353 and 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code, covering obstruction of a public servant, disobedience of an order, wrongful restraint, assault on a public servant and criminal intimidation.
Police had told the protesters that blocking the road was against Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which restricts public gatherings. The defence argued before the court that the case was fabricated and instituted in haste, and that the FIR had no grounds.
The judge also said he would examine the matter of a show-cause notice issued to police over the delay in producing the case record, an issue that had come up during earlier hearings in the matter.
The bail order comes less than a week after an anti-terrorism court sentenced Mazari and Chattha to ten years in prison each in a separate case, involving the removal of security barriers. That sentence, handed down last week, had drawn wide attention from lawyers' bodies and rights groups.
Mazari, a prominent human rights lawyer, and Chattha have faced a series of cases in recent years, and their legal troubles have become a closely watched test of the space available for protest and dissent in the capital.
Tuesday's decision does not end the couple's legal difficulties, since the road-blockade case itself will continue and the ten-year sentences in the separate case remain a live matter before the courts.
For now, though, the bail order means the two lawyers will not remain in custody in the Kohsar case while it proceeds, and their supporters have described the ruling as a small but significant relief after a difficult week.
The next hearings in the two matters will determine whether the relief granted on Tuesday holds, and whether the sentences imposed last week survive the appeals process that the couple's legal team is expected to pursue.
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