Supreme Court suspends Imaan Mazari, Hadi Chattha sentences, grants bail

A two-member bench headed by Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan heard the petitions of Imaan and Hadi today. The court granted bail against surety bonds of Rs200,000.

During the hearing, the petitioners’ counsel, Faisal Siddiqui, presented to the court the order sheets of several hearings held in the Islamabad High Court. He said the Supreme Court had directed the High Court on 12 May to decide the petitions for suspension of sentence within two weeks.

According to the counsel, the matter did not move forward despite the order of 12 May, and the case was adjourned several times in the Islamabad High Court.

Mr Siddiqui told the court that the registrar’s office of the Islamabad High Court had rejected an application for early hearing of the petition for suspension of sentence. In his arguments, he referred to an earlier remark by former judge Justice Asif Saeed Khosa. According to him, Justice Khosa had said a case should be adjourned only on the death of a judge or a lawyer.

Speaking about the repeated adjournment of the case in the Islamabad High Court, Mr Siddiqui said what happened in the High Court was a surprise for him. Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim remarked that these were days of surprises.

Granting bail, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan said both were lawyers and the court was respecting them. He said they should also be told to observe the decorum of the court. He added that there was a difference between a lawyer and an ordinary person.

On 24 January 2026, the District and Sessions Court in Islamabad had sentenced Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha to 17 years’ imprisonment each in total in a case over Social Media posts.

The court sentenced both under various sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA). These included five years under Section 9, 10 years under Section 10 and two years under Section 26-A.

Imaan Mazari and Hadi Chattha approached the Islamabad High Court against the trial court’s verdict on 7 February 2026.

The Islamabad High Court later held their petitions for suspension of sentence admissible, which opened the way for their formal hearing. On 12 May, the Supreme Court directed the Islamabad High Court to decide the petitions within two weeks. However, the matter remained pending even after the deadline of 26 May had passed. Applications for early hearing were later filed again in the Supreme Court.