Rights activist and lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, spent a second consecutive night at the office of Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) President Wajid Gilani, citing fears of arrest as police maintained a heavy presence around the Islamabad High Court.<\/p>\n
The couple had obtained pre-arrest bail on Wednesday in a case dating back to July 2025. However, they did not appear at a separate hearing on Thursday related to a controversial tweet case.<\/p>\n
Mazari told visitors she was ready to surrender. \u201cWe do not want any concession. We are sitting here to surrender,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will go ourselves \u2013 just tell us how many cases have been registered against us.\u201d<\/p>\n
District Bar Islamabad President Naeem Gujar criticised the police deployment around the court, saying police had \u201ccordoned off the High Court from all four sides\u201d and alleged that lawyers were being searched and harassed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boots of lawyers’ vehicles are being checked, and lawyers are being harassed,\u201d Gujar said, appealing to the prime minister, interior minister and army chief. He also demanded that authorities provide a complete list of cases registered against Mazari and Chattha to ensure legal proceedings follow due process.<\/p>\n
Read:\u00a0IHC grants two-day protective bail to Imaan Mazari, husband in newly surfaced case<\/p>\n
Chairman of the Islamabad Bar Council Executive Committee Zafar Khokhar echoed similar concerns over the treatment of lawyers. \u201cIt feels like there is a law of the jungle here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe demand that if the two have committed any crime, they should at least be given the right to a fair trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
IHCBA President Wajid Gilani warned that the Bar would take action if the concerns were not addressed. \u201cWhen someone files a bail application, no one has the right to harass them,\u201d he said, stressing the need to respect legal rights.<\/p>\n
Mazari and Chattha first sought refuge at the Bar president\u2019s office on Tuesday night after arrest warrants were issued in connection with a newly surfaced FIR at Kohsar Police Station, Islamabad, dated July 26, 2025.<\/p>\n
Read more:\u00a0IHC restores bail, reinstates right of defence of Imaan Mazari, husband<\/p>\n
The FIR was filed following a protest by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) and surfaced shortly after the Islamabad High Court reinstated their bail in a separate case under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016.<\/p>\n
Fearing arrest, the couple stayed overnight at the Bar office, with Gilani assuring them, \u201cSit in my office. No one will arrest you from here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The situation has drawn criticism from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which described the FIR as \u201cfabricated\u201d and expressed concern over what it called continued harassment of the couple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rights activist and lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, spent a second consecutive night at the office of Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) President Wajid Gilani, citing fears of arrest as police maintained a heavy presence around the Islamabad High Court. The couple had obtained pre-arrest bail on Wednesday in a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1550,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions\/1550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}