Summary Mazari and Chattha were sentenced to a combined 17 years in prison in January 2026
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - The Supreme Court on Thursday granted bail to lawyer and rights activist Imaan Mazari and her husband, advocate Hadi Ali Chattha, until the Islamabad High Court reaches a final decision on their applications for suspension of sentence.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim heard the case. The court also suspended the trial court’s decision and granted the couple bail against surety bonds of Rs200,000 each.
Mazari and Chattha were sentenced to a combined 17 years in prison in January 2026 in cases related to social media posts that the prosecution alleged promoted an anti-state narrative under cybercrime laws. They subsequently approached the Islamabad High Court seeking suspension of their sentences.
During Thursday’s hearing, Additional Attorney General Rana Asad opposed the bail pleas, arguing that the Islamabad High Court had not yet issued a decision against the prosecution.
He said the trial court had already provided seven opportunities and maintained that the High Court was the appropriate forum for suspension of sentence under Section 426.
Justice Afghan questioned the repeated delays in proceedings before the Islamabad High Court. He observed that the High Court sometimes referred to Supreme Court orders in its proceedings before adjourning the matter, while another date was subsequently fixed when the case came before the Supreme Court.
The judge remarked that the Islamabad High Court was, “in its own way”, preventing the Supreme Court from functioning and asked what had happened after the apex court’s first order.
Defence counsel Faisal Siddiqui told the bench that the Supreme Court had issued its initial order on May 12, directing the Islamabad High Court to decide the applications within two weeks. He then read out order sheets from several hearings before the High Court.
The court later directed the Additional Attorney General to take his seat and said it would first hear Siddiqui’s arguments.
Siddiqui criticised the repeated adjournments before the Islamabad High Court and referred to a remark attributed to former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa that cases should only be adjourned in exceptional circumstances.
He said the High Court had repeatedly postponed the proceedings and that the registrar’s office had rejected the defence’s request for an early hearing.
“What happened at the High Court came as a surprise to us,” Siddiqui said.
Justice Afghan responded: “These are the days of surprises.”
The Islamabad High Court had scheduled September 8 to hear Mazari and Chattha’s applications for suspension of their sentences, but the proceedings were adjourned without substantive hearing.
The Supreme Court had previously directed the High Court to decide the applications within two weeks. At an earlier hearing, the bench headed by Justice Afghan had questioned the delay and remarked that the “system should be fully exposed”.