Islamabad court grants Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha bail in police scuffle case, but 10-year sentence in separate case still stands
An Islamabad anti-terrorism court has granted bail to lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha in a road-blockade and police-scuffle case, against surety bonds of Rs5,000 each, though the couple remain subject to a 10-year sentence handed down last week in a separate case.
An Islamabad anti-terrorism court on Tuesday granted bail to human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband, fellow lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, in a case over an alleged road blockade and scuffle with police, in the latest turn in a series of court cases involving the couple.
Judge Abul Hasanat Muhammad Zulqarnain approved the bail applications against surety bonds of Rs5,000 each, after police presented the case record before the court, according to reports of the hearing from Geo News, The Express Tribune and The News.
The case, registered at Islamabad's Kohsar police station, concerns allegations that the couple interfered in official duties during a protest. The Express Tribune reported that the first information report, filed last year, related to a Baloch Student Council protest in the grounds of the Islamabad Press Club, in which at least 150 demonstrators were said to have taken part, blocked a road and clashed with police after being told the gathering breached Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The report said the case was filed under sections 186, 188, 341, 353 and 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code, covering obstruction of a public servant, disobedience of an official order, wrongful restraint, assault on a public servant and criminal intimidation.
During Tuesday's hearing, counsel for the couple, Riasat Ali Azad, argued that the case had been fabricated and instituted in haste and had no grounds, according to 24NewsHD's account of the proceedings, while police presented the record the court had sought.
The judge also said he would look into the matter of a show-cause notice issued to police, Hum News reported. The bail hearing had previously been adjourned after the investigating officer repeatedly failed to produce the case record, and the court had summoned the Islamabad inspector general of police for Tuesday's hearing and issued show-cause notices to a superintendent and a deputy superintendent of police.
Tuesday's bail order does not, on its own, mean the couple will walk free. It came less than a week after an anti-terrorism court sentenced both of them to 10 years in prison each, with fines of Rs100,000, in a separate case over the removal of security barriers during the visit of an international cricket team in October 2024, a case registered at Aabpara police station under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
That separate conviction is the reason the bail in the road-blockade case changes the couple's legal position in only one of the cases against them: unless a higher court suspends or overturns the 10-year sentence, they remain in custody under it, and reporting before Tuesday's hearing noted that the family intended to petition the Supreme Court against that verdict.
The couple have faced several separate legal proceedings over the past year. In September, the Supreme Court suspended their sentences in a case relating to controversial social-media posts and granted them bail against surety bonds of Rs200,000 each, pending a final decision in a case before the Islamabad High Court, according to The News.
What happens next will therefore play out on two tracks: the surety bonds in the road-blockade case must be furnished for the bail order to take effect, while the separate 10-year sentence remains the decisive question for their liberty, with any appeal or suspension application before a higher court likely to determine whether Tuesday's bail leads to their release or remains a partial legal victory.
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