Imaan Mazari, Hadi Chatha ask Supreme Court to halt terror trial

Human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chatha have moved the Supreme Court against an Islamabad High Court decision on their plea to stop an anti-terrorism trial against them, arguing that the proceedings must be halted or their pending application before the high court will be left with no effect.

In the petition, the couple said the trial court had proceeded hastily without giving the defence enough time to prepare its case. According to Minute Mirror, they also questioned the fairness of the proceedings, saying statements from all seven prosecution witnesses were recorded on a single day and that the case has now reached the cross-examination stage.

An Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court framed charges against them on October 7 in a case about the alleged removal of security barriers and disruption of a designated route during the visit of an international cricket team. The trial was later shifted to Adiala Jail after disputes over the accused's production in court and defence lawyers' access to their clients.

The applicants contend that removing security barriers does not amount to terrorism, and allege that the case is being used to harass them, subject them to political victimisation and keep them in detention.

The Supreme Court petition follows an October 19 hearing in the Islamabad High Court, which said it would pass an order after hearing the respondents. The high court declined interim relief on their petitions seeking removal of the anti-terrorism provisions from the case, but issued notices to the parties on a separate plea seeking suspension of the trial. Geo News reported that the couple has asked the Supreme Court both to set aside the October 19 order and to restrain the trial court from proceeding further.

Before the high court they had argued that legal procedure was not followed when charges were framed, saying they were not physically present at the time and did not receive copies of the relevant documents.

In January the couple was sentenced to a combined 17 years in prison in cases relating to their social media posts, which the prosecution said promoted an anti-state narrative under cybercrime laws. On September 17 they were arrested again, shortly after the Supreme Court granted them bail and suspended those sentences, and were produced before the ATC in a case registered at Kohsar Police Station.

Police sought 30 days of physical remand. Judge Abul Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain rejected the request and sent them to judicial custody, noting that while they had been named in the first information report as members of an unlawful assembly, no weapon had been attributed to either of them.

A contempt notice issued to the Adiala jail superintendent on September 27 was closed two days later after the couple signed the necessary powers of attorney, and the court has since scheduled arguments on their bail applications.