Pak: Human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari remanded into police custody in terror case

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 29 (ANI): After a day of arrest of human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari, Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Islamabad granted her three-day physical remand to the Islamabad police in a terror case registered against her in the federal capital’s Barakahu Police Station, reported The News International.  The decision came after the additional district and sessions judge, Abual Hasnat, approved prosecutor Raja Naveed plea seeking physical remand for Imaan Mazari.  ATC Judge Abual Hasnat approved Mazari’s physical remand on the prosecutor’s appeal, according to The News International. 

Earlier on Monday, Imaan was arrested in a new terror case from outside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi soon after an ATC court approved Mazari’s and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Ali Wazir’s bails in a sedition case pertaining to the controversial speech against state institutions. In a statement, Mazari’s lawyer said the police did not inform them about the case in which Mazari had been arrested.

The judge allowed Imaan to meet her mother Shireen Mazari in the courtroom right before ordering the remand.  However, Imaan’s counsel, Zainab Janjua opposed the police’s request for her client’s remand.  It is not necessary for a suspect to be kept in custody in the kind of investigation that the police want to conduct, she said, according to The News International.  “The Supreme Court said that it is not necessary to arrest the suspect in every case.

Imaan Mazari is a lawyer herself, she is not running away,” she said, adding that booking her client in the terror case for victimization. On August 20, Ali Wazir and Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir were arrested and sent on physical remand after they were accused of making controversial remarks at the PTM’s public rally.

Ali Wazir and Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir were booked on charges of sedition, preventing government officials from doing their duties and damaging public property, according to Geo News reported. During the hearing on Monday, Prosecutor Raja Naveed said that over 1,000 people were present at the rally where Imaan Mazari made the controversial remarks against state institutions.

During the hearing on August 24, Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Ali Wazir were produced before the ATC judge after the prosecutor requested for extension in their remand, according to Geo News report. The prosecutor said that the voice matching and photogrammetry of Imaan Hazari and Ali Wazir had been completed. The investigating officer said that Imaan Mazari was given a piece of paper from which she made the speech.