IHC grants pre-arrest bail to lawyer Imaan Mazari

In a case involving “abusing and defaming the top command of the Pakistan Army,” the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday issued lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir pre-arrest bail till June 9.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah reviewed her pre-arrest bail application, which was filed by Advocate Zainab Janjua.

On the allegation of Lt Colonel Syed Humayun Iftikhtar, who was representing the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch of GHQ, a first information report (FIR) was filed against Mazari-Hazir on May 26 at the capital’s Ramna police station.

The Pakistan Armed Forces’ JAG branch is made up of senior officers, attorneys, and judges who provide legal support to the army, air force, navy, and marines at all levels of command. It is managed by the army’s law directorate.

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Sections 505 (inciting citizens against the armed services) and 138 (abetting an act of insubordination by a soldier) of the Pakistan Penal Code have been filed against her.

Mazari-Hazir allegedly made a “derogatory and hostile” speech on May 21, the same day her mother, former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, was arrested outside her home in land ownership and transfer case, according to the FIR.

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Later, a video of a visibly disturbed Mazari-Hazir making remarks concerning Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa was uploaded on social media.

The lawyer’s negative words were “extremely disparaging, designed to promote and encourage mutiny/intimidation amongst rank and file of the Pakistan Army,” according to the FIR, and they caused “ridicule and fostered enmity within the Pakistan Army, while also inciting instability within the institution.”