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IHC Grants One-Day Protective Bail to Imaan Mazari and Husband in Peca Case
Islamabad High Court grants one-day protective bail to Imaan Mazari and her husband Hadi Chattha in a Peca case, staying their arrest till Tuesday.
ND
by News Desk
2026-01-19
IHC Grants One-Day Protective Bail to Imaan Mazari and Husband in Peca Case

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday granted one-day protective bail to lawyer and activist Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, staying their arrest in a case related to controversial social media posts.

The case has been registered under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016, in which the couple has been accused of inciting divisions on linguistic grounds and portraying the armed forces as being involved in terrorism through their online content.

Justice Azam Khan heard the petition filed by Mazari and Chattha challenging the arrest orders issued by a sessions court. The judge stayed their arrest until Tuesday and directed them to appear before the trial court.

During the hearing, defence counsel Kamran Murtaza argued that the trial court had unlawfully curtailed the accused’s right to defence, issued arrest warrants without fulfilling mandatory legal requirements, and ordered judicial custody along with virtual production.

He informed the court that the couple’s bail had already been cancelled twice and that arrest warrants had now been issued. Emphasising that Mazari is a woman and has been unwell, the counsel urged the court to intervene, adding that the sessions court was holding hearings at intervals of just 15 minutes.

Earlier in the day, Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka had directed authorities to obtain search warrants for the accused’s residence and ordered their arrest.

However, as proceedings resumed, the prosecutor informed the sessions court that the IHC had granted protective bail to the accused and directed them to appear before the trial court on Tuesday. The court subsequently adjourned the hearing till then.

Judge Majoka ordered that Mazari and Chattha be presented before the sessions court “within one hour” of their appearance in the IHC. He also refused to grant further adjournment, stating that the defence had taken “undue advantage” and no further concessions would be allowed.

Earlier, the judge had expressed displeasure over the failure of law enforcement agencies to execute the arrest warrants, warning that action would be taken against officials if their reports were found unsatisfactory.

On Saturday, the sessions court had reissued non-bailable arrest warrants against the couple due to their repeated absence from trial proceedings, noting that previous warrants remained unexecuted despite multiple attempts by law enforcement and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA).

The case originated from a complaint filed on August 12, 2025, with the NCCIA in Islamabad. The complaint accused Mazari of propagating narratives allegedly aligned with proscribed organisations, while her husband was accused of reposting some of the content.

According to the FIR, the accused blamed security forces for cases of missing persons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and portrayed them as ineffective against banned militant outfits, including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

The accused were indicted in the case in October last year.
Tagged:

FreedomOfExpression

IslamabadHighCourt

ImaanMazari

PecaCase
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