Court sentences Iman Mazari, Hadi Chattha to 10 years each

An anti-terrorism court has sentenced human rights lawyer Iman Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, to 10 years in prison each over the removal of police barriers at Islamabad's Zero Point and interference in state work during a cricket match two years ago.

Judge Tahir Abbas Supra announced the verdict at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on Thursday, BBC Urdu and Independent Urdu reported. Both defendants have been held at the jail for several months. BBC Urdu described the court as the anti-terrorism court of the federal capital, Islamabad; Independent Urdu described it as Rawalpindi's anti-terrorism court.

According to the judgment, the court convicted the couple under three provisions. Under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 each was given 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and a Rs100,000 fine; under Section 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code, two years and Rs50,000; and under Section 186, one year and Rs50,000. Failure to pay the fines would add six months, three months and one month respectively. The court ordered the terms to run concurrently, so the effective sentence is 10 years, although the three add up to 13. Both were granted the benefit of Section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code, meaning time already served in custody counts towards the sentence. Each faces a total fine of Rs200,000.

The case was registered on 25 October 2024, when England were playing Pakistan in a Test in Rawalpindi and police had closed the road at Zero Point. Prosecutors alleged that Mazari and Chattha removed the barriers and assaulted police officers; both denied the charges. Independent Urdu reported that they pleaded not guilty when charges were framed on 7 October, that the court appointed Atif Mahmood as state counsel, and that the prosecution produced seven witnesses.

Recording their statements under Section 342 before the verdict, Mazari said she was doing so in protest. She told the court she was on her way to an anti-terrorism court hearing with 15 minutes to spare when she found the road closed for a visiting foreign cricket team, that police produced no written order from a magistrate authorising the closure, and that she asked officers to reopen the road because citizens' constitutional right of movement was being affected. She said a plainclothes officer threw an iron rod at her, injuring her, that her husband acted to defend her, and that a PIMS hospital report on her injuries was submitted to the court. She also said no record of any injured policeman was produced and that all the witnesses were police officers.

Independent Urdu reported that the couple was on bail in this case. BBC Urdu reported that they were arrested in this case at Adiala Jail immediately after their release in another matter: a case over social media posts in which an Islamabad court sentenced them to 17 years each in January 2026, a sentence the Supreme Court suspended and granted bail in August 2026.