The Islamabad Excessive Court docket (IHC) on Tuesday reinstated the bail of lawyer and activist Imaan Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, within the controversial social media posts case, after it was canceled by a periods court docket on January 15.
Within the case registered below the Prevention of Digital Crimes Act, 2016 (Peca), the 2 have been accused of inciting divisions on linguistic grounds by social media posts and creating the impression that the armed forces have been engaged in terrorism inside the nation.
On January 17, Mazari and Chattha challenged their arrest orders within the IHC, arguing that the trial court docket had unlawfully curtailed their proper of protection, issued arrest warrants with out fulfilling obligatory authorized necessities, and ordered judicial custody together with digital manufacturing.
Throughout at present’s listening to, the IHC decide reinstated the bail from earlier, suspending the arrest warrant issued by Extra District and Classes Decide Muhammad Afzal Majoka.
He additional directed them to finish the cross-examination in three days and reinstated their proper to protection.
At this, the couple’s authorized counsel, Kamran Murtaza, requested the court docket to grant one week.
“I’ll look into it. You must proceed with the trial,” the decide remarked.
Hearings on Monday
A day earlier, Justice Azam Khan of the IHC, who has been presiding over the listening to, granted Mazari and Chattha a one-day protecting bail, directing them to seem in court docket at present.
Throughout yesterday’s listening to on the IHC, Murtaza knowledgeable the court docket that his purchasers’ bail had been canceled twice.
“Now an order has been issued to arrest them,” he mentioned.
He maintained that “if there have been any misdoings on his consumer’s half, the decide ought to show endurance”.
“The decide is holding hearings each quarter-hour,” he mentioned.
Earlier on the identical day, Decide Majoka had expressed displeasure over why the accused had not but been arrested throughout a listening to.
He directed the Nationwide Cyber Crime Investigation Company officers to acquire a search warrant for the accused’s residence from a Justice of the Peace and ordered them to current Mazari and Chattha in court docket by 11am.
Nonetheless, after the IHC’s orders, the listening to was adjourned to January 20 (at present).
Decide Majoka directed that the accused needs to be introduced within the periods court docket “inside one hour of their look at IHC”.
