Court keeps case pending until High Court rules, couple’s lawyer denounces inaction on appeal
Lawyer and rights activist Imaan Mazari and her husband, lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha. PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday directed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to decide the stay of sentence petitions filed by lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha within two weeks, while keeping the matter in abeyance until the High Court takes a decision.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Shahid Waheed heard the case, during which the couple’s lawyer Faisal Siddiqi informed the court that the IHC had only issued opinions on the sentencing appeals and no further hearings had been held on the appeals for over two months.
“There is no relief for us at the IHC,” Siddiqi told the bench, arguing that the court should make a decision on the sentence suspension request.
Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, however, noted that no adverse order had been passed against the petitioners either. “There is no decision against you from the High Court,” he remarked, adding that the IHC had not rejected the request for suspension of sentence.
Read: SC Registrar raises objections to Imaan Mazari’s plea
The judge also questioned the legal parameters of the suspended sentence. “What are the parameters of reprieve? When is a sentence suspended? asked Justice Afghan, observing that had the High Court rejected the plea, the SC could have looked into the merits of the case.
Siddiqi pushed back, wondering where the petitioners should turn given the absence of any relief from the IHC. “When no relief has been granted by the IHC, where should we go?” he said.
Justice Waheed suggested that the court could issue an observation directing that the appeal be decided within two weeks, before the court finally orders the IHC to decide the applications for suspension of sentence.
Imaan, a rights activist and lawyer, and Chattha, a lawyer, were sentenced in January 2026 to a combined 17 years in prison on multiple charges related to controversial social media posts that the prosecution said amounted to an anti-state narrative under cybercrime laws.
Learn more: FO rejects EU criticism of ‘internal affairs’ convictions of Imaan and Hadi
Last month, Imaan approached the SC seeking suspension of his sentence, moving the apex court after the IHC failed to list his request for hearing. Filed through Siddiqi, the motion stated that despite his lawyer’s request to stay the trial court’s judgment, the IHC only issued notices on the stay request on February 19 and did not suspend the petitioner’s sentence.
Further, the petition argues that the order of the trial court was totally illegal and clearly mala fide, as it violated the requirements of due process under Articles 10 and 10A of the Constitution of Pakistan, thereby violating the mandatory provisions of Articles 233, 234, 353, 367 and 526 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898.
