Pak’s human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab arrested

Pakistan’s prominent human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, were arrested on Friday while they were en route to a court in Islamabad. The couple was en route to appear in the Additional District and Sessions Court in the controversial tweets case, in which Judge Mohammad Afzal Majoka had issued arrest warrants on January 16.

Mazari-Hazir’s mother, Dr Shireen Mazari, who was human rights minister in the Government of Imran Khan, confirmed the arrest, saying that her daughter and son-in-law “have been arrested, put in separate cars, and taken away to unknown locations.” “Fascism at its peak. Emasculated men in power must be so pleased with this achievement!” Mazari added in a post on X. Mazari also shared videos showing police vehicles trailing the lawyers’ car, with officers stopping the vehicle and opening its doors.

In a separate post, Mazari claimed that the police “used violence on the bar leaders, [including] breaking the windows of the car, etc”. “Seems they (police) used violence on Imaan and Hadi also,” Mazari alleged in another post. The couple spent two consecutive nights in the office of Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) President Wajid Ali Gilani to evade arrest.           (PTI)