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Rights activist and lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, were detained in Islamabad on Friday while reportedly heading to a court hearing, her family said, according to a report by The Balochistan Post (TBP).
Imaan's mother, former federal minister Shireen Mazari, said in a series of posts on X that police officials intercepted the couple and took them into custody. She said they were placed in separate vehicles and moved to undisclosed locations. She added that the police presented no first information report (FIR) and that members of the bar association "sadly could do nothing." Describing the arrest as "fascism at its peak", she said those in power "must be so pleased with this achievement", as noted by a TBP post. The couple was scheduled to appear before a trial court on Friday in a case linked to allegedly controversial tweets, after failing to attend the previous day despite repeated summons. The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Afzal Majoka had issued arrest warrants for both on January 16. Family sources said the couple had evaded arrest for the past two nights by taking shelter in the office of Islamabad High Court Bar Association President Wajid Ali Gilani, TBP reported. Nadia Baloch, sister of detained Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leader Dr Mahrang Baloch, condemned the detentions. She termed them a "gross violation of human rights" and "an attack on freedom of speech and the peaceful struggle." She said both Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali had supported "marginalised and oppressed people across Pakistan, especially the Baloch nation," and called on rights organisations and activists to work for their release. Dr Shalee Baloch, organiser of the Baloch Women Forum (BWF), said the couple had been "the voice of oppressed people" and described their arrest as "heartbreaking". She said the detentions demonstrated "how lawlessness prevails across the country even for lawyers", adding that the arrests were "a direct attack on the integrity of those who speak against human rights abuses and for the rule of law." She said those responsible should be held accountable and that the incident reflected "a growing violation of the state's own laws and international conventions." Sammi Deen Baloch said the arrests should concern "anyone who still believes access to justice exists in Pakistan," adding that Baloch families had witnessed relatives taken "before they could reach the court." She said Mazari and Chattha were being targeted for "standing with the disappeared" and that their arrest served as "a warning to anyone who crosses the line between observing injustice and naming it," as quoted by a TBP post. Human rights organisation Amnesty International said the arrests marked "the latest escalation in a sustained campaign of judicial harassment and intimidation" by Pakistani authorities. The group cited eyewitness accounts alleging that law enforcement personnel used excessive force during the arrest and failed to provide reasons at the time, raising "serious concerns" about the couple's safety. It said the absence of due process and the pursuit of "spurious and retaliatory cases" appeared intended to silence the pair for their human rights work. Amnesty International called for the immediate release of Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha. It urged authorities to drop all charges "targeting them solely for their work defending human rights", as noted by a TBP post. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it "strongly condemns" what it described as the unlawful arrest and reported manhandling of the couple by Islamabad police while they were travelling from the Islamabad High Court to the sessions court. HRCP said detaining lawyers in the presence of bar leadership and taking them to an undisclosed police station amounted to a "grave abuse of authority and contempt for due process." It said the repeated use of "successive and fabricated FIRs" to "harass, intimidate and ultimately muzzle dissent" violated constitutional guarantees, TBP reported. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee, in a statement released a day before the arrests, said the prosecution of Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act illustrated how the state was "weaponising laws to silence human rights defenders." The group said targeting a lawyer for performing her professional duties constituted "a grave assault on human rights advocacy". It said Mazari had stood with families of the forcibly disappeared and defended Baloch students against racial profiling, as cited by a TBP report. (ANI)
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