The Supreme Court has granted bail to the human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha, pending the Islamabad High Court’s decision in their case (Express Tribune).
The order came from a single-judge bench headed by Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
The sentence they are appealing
In January 2026 a district and sessions court sentenced both to a combined 17 years of rigorous imprisonment under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act, over social media posts prosecutors said amounted to an anti-state narrative.
| Provision | Sentence | Fine | |—|—|—| | PECA section 9 | 5 years | Rs5m | | PECA section 10 | 10 years | Rs30m | | PECA section 26-A | 2 years | Rs1m | | PECA section 11 (hate speech) | acquitted | — |
They were arrested on 23 January 2026.
What the High Court is actually deciding
Not the appeal. The IHC is hearing applications to suspend the sentences — and has reserved judgment on the prior question of whether such applications are even maintainable.
That is the procedural knot. Until the High Court rules on whether it may consider suspending the sentences, it cannot consider suspending them, and the convicted parties remain convicted.
The timeline is the story
| | | |—|—| | 23 January 2026 | arrested | | January 2026 | sentenced | | 12 May | Supreme Court directs the IHC to decide within two weeks | | 8 September | IHC hearing adjourned without proceeding | | 17 September | Supreme Court grants bail |
A direction to decide within two weeks, issued in May, had not produced a decision by September.
What the judge said about that
Justice Afghan: “The IHC is, in its own way, preventing the SC from functioning.”
That is an extraordinary sentence for a Supreme Court judge to say about a High Court on the record, and it should be read alongside what this newspaper reported today: the same Justice Afghan sat on the bench that questioned whether the Federal Constitutional Court may summon Supreme Court records under the 27th Amendment.
Pakistan’s superior judiciary is currently disputing its own hierarchy in two directions at once — upward with the constitutional court, and downward over a High Court that has not complied with a direction for four months. The bail granted today is, in part, the Supreme Court routing around a blockage it has publicly named.
He also told counsel: “Both are lawyers; we are respecting their dignity. Tell them too to observe the decorum of the court.”
Counsel
Advocate Faisal Siddiqui for the petitioners; Additional Attorney General Rana Asad for the state.
What this does and does not change
Bail releases them pending a decision. It does not overturn the conviction, reduce the sentence, or express a view on the merits. If the IHC rules the suspension applications are not maintainable, the underlying 17 years stands unless and until an appeal succeeds.
What is not established
The content of the social media posts has not been described in the reporting we have seen, and this newspaper has not examined the trial record or the judgment. Bail terms and surety amounts were not reported. No date has been set for the IHC’s ruling on maintainability, and the state has not indicated whether it will challenge the bail.
[Image: File photo via The Express Tribune]
