Imaan Mazari, Hadi Chattha appeal 10-year sentences in Islamabad High Court

Human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, filed appeals in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday, 6 November, against their 10-year prison sentences in the security breach case. They also asked the court to suspend the sentences and grant them bail while the appeals are heard.

This is the first legal challenge to the anti-terrorism court verdict of 29 October, which we reported last week. That court sentenced each of them to 10 years and fined them Rs100,000.

What are they arguing?

The appeals were filed by advocates Faisal Siddiqui, Riasat Ali Azad and Zainab Janjua, Dawn reported. Their main points:

• A secret trial: the hearings were held inside the jail, which, the lawyers argue, breached the constitutional right to a fair trial and effectively made it a secret trial.
• Pending transfer request: the trial court went ahead and decided the case while their request to move the trial to another judge was still pending before the High Court.
• Fair-trial safeguards: they say the basic protections of a fair trial were missing.

The IHC registrar’s office numbered the appeals 283/2026 for Mazari and 282/2026 for Chattha. No hearing date had been reported yet.

Two separate cases

It is easy to mix up the couple’s cases. This appeal is about the security breach case decided on 29 October. Separately, they are challenging a 24 January verdict in a case over social media posts, in which they were given 17-year sentences; that appeal is also before the IHC, according to Samaa and Minute Mirror.

What to watch next: the date the IHC fixes for the bail and suspension requests, which usually come up before the main appeal.