Islamabad, Oct 29 (IANS) A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Thursday handed down 10 years of imprisonment each to human rights lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, in connection with a security breach case, local media reported.
The case was registered at Islamabad’s Aabpara Police Station over allegations that the couple threatened national security by interfering in state affairs during an international cricket team’s visit to Pakistan in October 2024.
The court order stated that the lawyer couple received two years’ imprisonment and a fine of Pakistani Rs 50,000 under Section 353, along with a one-year jail term and another Rs 50,000 fine under Section 186, leading Pakistani media outlet Geo News reported.
Imaan and Hadi were also sentenced to 10 years in prison each and fined Rs 1 lakh each under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997.
The court directed that all sentences run concurrently, bringing their total imprisonment to 10 years each.
The lawyer couple’s counsel had sought a deferment of the verdict, citing petitions pending before the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court.
“The decision should be postponed until the petitions pending before the Supreme Court and High Court are decided,” Geo News quoted lawyer Aimal Mandokhail as saying.
He further contended that the court could not legally deliver its verdict while the applications were still pending consideration.
Meawhile, Imaan and Hadi alleged that the security breach case against them was “nothing more than harassment” aimed at punishing them for their legal and human rights work, describing it as part of a wider pattern of targeting through reprisals.
“The evidence produced during this trial is not against us, but in fact a charge sheet against (prosecution witnesses)/police officials and the state,” Pakistani daily Dawn quoted Imaan and Hadi as saying in their separate similar recorded statements.
According to them, the prosecution witnesses were “part and parcel” of the state machinery that had allegedly persecuted them for their human rights work and pro bono legal services for marginalised and oppressed communities, including street vendors, those facing false blasphemy allegations and victims of enforced disappearances.
“I am a prisoner of conscience who has been at the receiving end of state persecution,” read the statements by the lawyer couple.
The case of Imaan and Hadi has come under mounting international criticism, raising serious concerns over arbitrary detention and the persecution of human rights lawyers in Pakistan.
Last month, a total of 15 international civil society organisations, including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), voiced grave concern over the continued arbitrary detention of Pakistani human rights lawyers Imaan and her husband, Hadi, since January, despite the Supreme Court suspending their sentences and granting them bail.
In the joint statement, the organisations urged Pakistani authorities to immediately release the lawyer couple and ensure that any continued deprivation of liberty is subject to a clear legal basis and rigorous, independent judicial scrutiny.
“Drop all charges based on the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, human rights advocacy, and the lawful performance of their professional duties as lawyers. Disclose the factual and legal basis for their re-arrest and ensure rigorous judicial scrutiny of the arbitrary use of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the latest proceedings,” the joint statement said.
–IANS
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