WEBDESK - NAYADAUR
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has granted bail to lawyer and rights activist Imaan Mazari and her husband, advocate Hadi Ali Chattha, while simultaneously delivering a pointed rebuke to the Islamabad High Court for repeated and unexplained delays in hearing their applications.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim suspended the trial court's decision and granted the couple bail against surety bonds of Rs 200,000 each, pending a final decision by the IHC on their applications seeking suspension of their sentences.
The Sentences That Triggered the Case
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. What followed was a series of adjournments that the Supreme Court bench found sufficiently alarming to warrant direct intervention.
The IHC Delay That Forced Supreme Court Action
The Supreme Court had previously directed the IHC to decide the applications within two weeks following an earlier order on May 12. The High Court did not comply.
Defense counsel Faisal Siddiqui told the bench that the Supreme Court had initially ordered the IHC to decide the applications within two weeks on May 12. He presented order sheets from several High Court hearings demonstrating a pattern of postponements. Siddiqui criticized the repeated adjournments, saying the High Court had postponed proceedings repeatedly, and that the registrar's office had also rejected the defense's request for an early hearing.
The IHC had scheduled September 8 to hear Mazari and Chattha's applications but adjourned the proceedings without a substantive hearing.
Justice Afghan questioned the repeated delays in proceedings before the IHC directly and asked what had happened following the Supreme Court's earlier order directing the High Court to decide the matter.
The Government's Opposition
Additional Attorney General Rana Asad opposed the bail pleas during Thursday's hearing, arguing that the IHC had yet to issue a decision on the prosecution's case. He maintained that the trial court had already provided seven opportunities and argued that the IHC was the appropriate forum for seeking suspension of sentence under Section 426.
The Supreme Court bench did not accept that position as sufficient justification for continued detention given the months of IHC inaction.
Imaan Mazari is one of Pakistan's most prominent human rights lawyers and activists. Her conviction alongside her husband under cybercrime laws for social media posts has been closely watched by Pakistan's legal community, civil society, and international human rights organizations as a test case for the application of Pakistan's cybercrime framework against political and civic speech.
A combined 17-year sentence for social media posts that a trial court classified as anti-state content represents one of the most severe applications of Pakistan's cybercrime laws against civilian activists in recent memory.
The Supreme Court's decision to grant bail while simultaneously rebuking the IHC for failing to comply with its own two-week directive signals the highest court's impatience with procedural delays in a case with significant civil liberties dimensions.
The IHC must now decide the sentence suspension applications without further delay. The Supreme Court has made its view of the prolonged postponements clear.