ISLAMABAD: Prominent human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari-Hazir and her husband, advocate Hadi Ali Chattha, were arrested by police in Pakistan’s capital on Friday while on their way to a court appearance, a family member said, in a case that has drawn attention to tensions over freedom of expression and prosecution of critics.
Mazari-Hazir, one of Pakistan’s most outspoken civil liberties lawyers, and Chattha are being prosecuted, among other cases, under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) over posts on X that authorities say incited ethnic divisions and portrayed the military as involved in “terrorism.” Both reject the allegations. If convicted under the relevant PECA provision, they face a prison term of up to 14 years.
A district and sessions court had directed law enforcement to arrest the pair in mid-January saying they had repeatedly failed to appear in hearings, and non-bailable arrest warrants were reissued.
“Imaan and Hadi were on their way to court when police arrested them without showing warrants or a copy of the FIR,” Shireen Mazari, Imaan’s mother and a former federal minister, told Arab News.
Police could not be reached for comment.
