ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Excessive Court docket (IHC) on Monday granted lawyer and activist Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, one-day protecting bail in relation to their arrest warrants in a case linked to controversial social media posts.
The case has been registered beneath the Prevention of Digital Crimes Act, 2016 (Peca), during which the 2 have been accused of inciting divisions on linguistic grounds by way of social media posts and creating the impression that the armed forces had been engaged in terrorism inside the nation.
On January 17, Mazari and Chattha challenged their arrest orders within the IHC, arguing that the trial courtroom had unlawfully curtailed their proper of protection, issued arrest warrants with out fulfilling necessary authorized necessities, and ordered judicial custody together with digital manufacturing.
Justice Azam Khan of the IHC took up the petition at this time and stayed the arrest of Mazari and Chattha till tomorrow.
Lawyer Kamran Murtaza, who represented the couple, knowledgeable the courtroom that their 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 shopper’s half, the decide ought to reveal persistence”.
“The decide is holding hearings each quarter-hour,” he mentioned. “Imaan is a girl, and she or he has been sick,” he added.
Earlier within the day, Further District and Classes Choose Muhammad Afzal Majoka had directed authorities to acquire a search warrant for Mazari and Chattha.
Because the listening to on the periods courtroom resumed after two sittings, the prosecutor knowledgeable the periods courtroom that the 2 accused now have protecting bail within the IHC and had been ordered to seem earlier than the courtroom tomorrow.
The decide adjourned the proceedings till tomorrow.
Choose Majoka directed that the accused must be offered within the periods courtroom “inside one hour of the looks at IHC”.
The decide additionally refused to entertain a request from the assistant counsel for adjournment till the day after tomorrow, stating that the counsel had taken “undue benefit” and no concession can be supplied.
Choose Majoka expresses displeasure
Throughout the listening to earlier at this time, Choose Majoka expressed displeasure over why the accused had not but been arrested.
He directed the NCCIA 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 courtroom by 11am.
When the listening to resumed, Nationwide Cyber Crime Investigation Company (NCCIA) officers, police officers, and particular prosecutors appeared earlier than the courtroom.
The courtroom was knowledgeable that the arrest had not but been made. NCCIA officers and police sought additional time to submit a report relating to the arrest.
Choose Majoka then adjourned the listening to until 2pm, warning that “whoever’s report is unsatisfactory, motion shall be taken in opposition to them”.
On Saturday, the courtroom reissued non-bailable arrest warrants in opposition to Mazari and Chattha for his or her repeated absences from trial proceedings.
Within the licensed copies of courtroom orders dated January 17, Choose Majoka famous that earlier warrants couldn’t be executed regardless of repeated makes an attempt by legislation enforcement and the NCCIA.
Throughout the proceedings, officers from the NCCIA submitted stories stating that the non-bailable warrants had returned unexecuted, with NCCIA Assistant Director Imran Haider informing the courtroom that the accused had deliberately hid themselves to keep away from arrest.
At one level in the course of the day, protection counsel Riasat Ali Azad requested an adjournment till Monday, arguing that the accused had challenged the courtroom’s January 15 order. canceling their bail earlier than the Islamabad excessive courtroom.
The courtroom subsequently accepted the request however ordered that non-bailable warrants be reissued in opposition to the accused.
Choose Majoka additional directed the Islamabad deputy inspector basic (Operations) and Cyber Crime Reporting Middle In-Cost Muhammad Iqbal to depute senior officers — not under the rank of superintendent of police or deputy director — from the NCCIA to execute the arrest warrants.
The case
The case stems from a criticism filed on August 12, 2025 on the NCCIA, Islamabad.
The criticism accused Mazari of disseminating and “propagating narratives that align with hostile terrorist teams and proscribed organizations”, whereas her husband was implicated for reposting a few of her posts.
The primary data report (FIR) of the case alleged that the 2 held safety forces accountable for instances of lacking individuals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
It additionally acknowledged that that they had portrayed the armed forces as ineffective in opposition to proscribed teams, together with the Balochistan Liberation Military (BLA) and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
The accused had been indicted within the case in October final yr.
