Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday directed the counsels and witnesses in a case against incarcerated rights activist and lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, to appear at the Adiala jail for the next hearing after police suggested a jail trial citing limitations in transporting the accused to the court.
The court also directed the Adiala jail superintendent to arrange a meeting between Imaan and her counsel in accordance with the Pakistan Prison Rules, 1978, after the defence submitted an affidavit detailing alleged difficulties faced at a previous meeting.
The instructions came from ATC Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra, who was presiding over the proceedings of a case that pertains to the alleged disruption of a security route of an international cricket team and incitement to public unrest. Imaan and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, have been accused of removing barriers from the route. The couple was indicted in the case on Oct 7.
The lawyers representing them have been seeking a meeting with them, and they boycotted the proceedings at the previous hearing on Wednesday after the judge decided to record the prosecution witnesses’ statements despite the defence’s request to defer the exercise until they could meet the accused.
At the outset of Thursday’s hearing, defence counsels Aimal Khan Mandokhail and Riasat Ali Azad appeared before the court, with the former submitting an affidavit detailing the alleged difficulties he faced while meeting his client, Imaan, at the Adiala jail.
The affidavit stated that the lawyer had received a certified copy of the court order regarding a meeting with his client at 2:52pm and reached the jail at 3:50pm on Wednesday.
Mandokhail stated in the affidavit that he presented the order to the Adiala jail’s deputy superintendent and sought a private meeting with his client in line with the Pakistan Prison Rules, 1978 and the court’s directives. He was allowed to meet the accused at 4:45pm after a wait of nearly an hour, the affidavit said, adding that the meeting took place in a conference room instead
