Scores of lawyers, human rights activists, and members of civil society staged a protest in Karachi, in Pakistan on Monday, January 26, over the “unfair” conviction of lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha over the weekend.
Both Mazari and Chattha were sentenced to 17 years in prison over their social media posts between 2021 and 2025. The posts were critical to the state’s alleged involvement in enforced disappearances in different parts of the country, including Balochistan and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP).
They were sentenced within 24 hours after their arrests on Friday in Islamabad. The judgement claimed Mazari “consistently disseminated highly offensive, misleading and anti-state contents on social media” with the “active connivance” of her husband, Chattha, Dawn reported.
The protesters claimed the convictions were a misuse of the country’s newly amended Prevention of Electronics Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 and an attempt to silence all voices of dissent in the country. They have termed the conviction “baseless and in complete defiance of due process” and demanded it be overturned and Mazari and Chattha be released immediately.
The Shehbaz Sharif government pushed for rushed amendments in the PECA in the parliament last year, despite large-scale protests by lawyers and opposition parties. Protesters had warned that new amendments give arbitrary powers to the state to allegedly control “fake news” and promote self-censorship.
The protesters on Monday were blocked by the Karachi police when they tried to move towards the city’s press club. The police also prevented several leaders, including the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior from reaching the protest venue. This led to several protesters staging a sit-in on the road for hours.
Several activists, including the president of the Karachi Press Club (KPC), Fazil Jamili, condemned the police’s refusal to allow the protests, calling it an assault on democratic freedom and a violation of freedom of assembly.
Mazari and Chattha have been fighting cases related to activists in Balochistan and KP who have been protesting for years against “enforced disappearances” of thousands of their comrades and common people by the country’s armed forces in the name of fighting insurgency.
Several commentators have speculated that the conviction is a way to silence all such lawyers who defend the protesters and speak on behalf of these activists.
Assault on democratic dissent
Earlier in the week, Mazari and Chattha were granted bail in an old case by the Islamabad High Court. However, it was cancelled on January 16. When they got bail again last week, the police immediately filed another FIR and arrested them when they were on their way to the court on Friday.
They have faced state harassment in the past as well.
Amnesty International Pakistan called the cancellation of Mazari and Chattha’s bails a “blatant abuse of the justice system.”
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called the cases against Mazari and Chattha “fabricated”. In a post on X last week, it condemned their unlawful arrests. It called the move a “grave abuse of authority and contempt of due process” as well as a violation of constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression.”
Ammar Ali Jan, leader of the left-wing Haqook-e-Khalq (HKP) said that the couple has become the latest victim of “state gangsterism”. He claimed that their crime was to speak for the “victims of forced disappearances and false blasphemy accusations.”
Activists have also opposed the misuse of the country’s blasphemy law against the persons from religious minorities in Pakistan or members of rational movements. Dozens of people are either killed or arrested every year in the country over the accusations of blasphemy.
Despite admitting the problems with the law, the state has refused to amend it, fearing large-scale extremist mobilizations and unrest in the country. Instead, it has targeted activists opposed to the law.
HKP also issued a statement on its social media page claiming Mazari and Chattha’s conviction “is authoritarian persecution of human rights defenders, not justice” further claiming that “when speaking about enforced disappearance becomes terrorism, democracy is dead.”
Taimur Rahman, leader of the Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP), also questioned the conviction, claiming Mazari and Chattha had done nothing wrong while speaking for and defending the activists opposed to “enforced disappearances” in the country.
Rahman also called the conviction “absurd beyond all comprehension.”
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