Imaan, Hadi challenge anti-terrorism trial in Supreme Court

Human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha have approached the Supreme Court against an Islamabad High Court (IHC) decision concerning their request to halt trial proceedings in an anti-terrorism case.

The couple approached the apex court on Monday. Their petition argues that unless the trial is immediately stayed, their pending application before the high court will become ineffective.

What the petition argues

The petition makes two central complaints about the trial proceedings.

First, the applicants contend that the trial court initiated proceedings in haste without granting them adequate time. Second, they argue that the statements of prosecution witnesses were recorded in a single day.

Both points go to the fairness of the proceedings rather than to the final outcome. The argument is that a trial which moves too fast, and which compresses witness evidence into one day, does not give the defence a proper opportunity to prepare and respond.

The petition also states the applicants’ position on the substance of the case: that removing security barriers did not constitute terrorism. That argument frames the dispute at the heart of the case, namely whether the conduct alleged against them meets the legal threshold for a terrorism charge at all.

The applicants say the Supreme Court must intervene now, because waiting would render their high court application meaningless. If the trial runs its course while the high court application is still pending, the relief they seek from the high court would arrive too late to matter.

The case so far

The Supreme Court petition is the latest step in proceedings that have already seen several turns.

The case was reported in October when an anti-terrorism court indicted Mazari and Chattha in the security breach case. Later that month, the Ministry of Law issued a notification for a jail trial, with proceedings to be held at Adiala Jail.

A separate order from an anti-terrorism court directed the jail authorities to allow the couple to meet their legal team, after concerns about access to counsel.

Each of those steps has shaped the case. The indictment set the charges. The jail-trial notification set the venue. The access order dealt with the defence’s ability to consult its lawyers. The Supreme Court petition now challenges the pace and conduct of the trial itself, and the high court’s handling of the bid to stop it.

Why the Supreme Court move matters

Approaching the Supreme Court is not a routine step. It signals that the applicants believe the ordinary course of the trial will cause harm that cannot be undone later.

The Supreme Court has not yet been reported to have passed an order on the petition. The filing itself, however, changes the public shape of the case. What was a trial-court dispute about pace and procedure is now a constitutional-court question about whether that pace was fair.

What the petition does not decide

It is important to be clear about what Monday’s filing does and does not do. It does not decide whether Mazari and Chattha are guilty or innocent. It does not quash the charges. It asks the Supreme Court to intervene in the trial process, on the ground that the high court’s decision on their stay application should be revisited and that the trial should be paused in the meantime.

For observers of the case, the key question now is procedural: will the Supreme Court stay the trial, will it direct the high court to decide the pending application urgently, or will it leave the trial to run its course?

What happens next

The next development will come from the Supreme Court itself, when the petition is taken up for hearing. Until then, the trial proceedings and the pending high court application both remain live.

The couple’s legal team will press the argument that time is of the essence. The state will be expected to respond on whether the trial’s pace was justified and whether the high court application still has meaning if the trial continues.

What are Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha asking the Supreme Court?

They are asking it to intervene against an IHC decision on their request to halt their anti-terrorism trial, arguing that without an immediate stay their pending high court application will become ineffective.

What do they say about the trial’s conduct?

What is their position on the charge?

• The Express Tribune, “Imaan, Hadi challenge trial in Supreme Court” (27 October 2026): https://tribune.com.pk/story/2637087/imaan-hadi-challenge-trial-in-supreme-court
• Feature Pakistan prior coverage of the case: the anti-terrorism court indictment, the jail-trial notification and the jail-access order (parent to link the live posts at publish time).