Imaan Mazaari and her husband released on bail in terrorism case

Imaan Mazaari – the prominent human rights lawyer – and her husband, advocate Haadi Ali Chatha, were released from jail.

According to the media reports, Imaan Mazaari and her husband were released hours after an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) granted them bail in the “security breach” case. ATC Judge Tahir Abbas approved the bail against a surety bond of Rs20,000 after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) struck down the three-day physical remand handed down by ATC on Tuesday.

It also ordered the couple to be held in jail on a 14-day judicial remand. IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz heard the petition challenging the couple’s physical remand, with lawyers Qaiser Imam and Zainab Janjua representing Mazari and Chatha in court.

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Throughout the hearings, the prosecutor submitted the remand request and read the court order. The IHC CJ then questioned the prosecutor if it was appropriate, to which the law officer said yes. The two-member court subsequently deemed the preceding physical remand null and void and ordered the accused to be transported to jail on judicial remand.

Mazari and her husband were jailed in the federal capital on Monday after attempting to remove roadblocks set up for the visiting England team’s traffic procedure last week. The FIR filed against them includes Sections 186 (obstructing public servants in the discharge of public functions), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of the offense committed in prosecution of common object), and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servants from discharge of their duty) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), as well as Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

Furthermore, the FIR also included PPC’s Sections 506(ii) (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy).