Human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, have asked the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to fix their applications seeking suspension of their sentences in the controversial tweets case for an early hearing during the week beginning July 27.
The miscellaneous applications were filed by advocates Faisal Siddiqi and Zainab Janjua.
The petitioners requested the court to schedule the sentence suspension applications for hearing this week, arguing that the prosecution’s objections to the admissibility of the pleas had already been dismissed.
The applications stated that the sentence suspension pleas had originally been fixed for hearing on July 24, when the prosecution challenged their maintainability, contending that they had been filed prematurely.
However, the court has since rejected the prosecution’s objections, clearing the way for the applications to be heard on their merits.
On July 25, the IHC, while announcing a reserved verdict, declared the sentence suspension petitions filed by Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha admissible for hearing and dismissed the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency’s (NCCIA) miscellaneous application questioning their maintainability.
During the earlier hearing, the NCCIA’s counsel argued that the applications could not legally be filed before six months had elapsed and urged the court to decide the agency’s objections first.
Representing the couple, advocate Faisal Siddiqi opposed the objection, arguing that if the prosecution wanted the sentence suspension pleas dismissed, both matters should be heard together.
He maintained that his clients had filed their applications under a different legal provision from the one cited by the NCCIA and described the agency’s objections as legally untenable.
Justice Azam Khan had also sought clarification during the proceedings on whether either of the convicts had received any remission in their sentences. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court reserved its verdict before later declaring the petitions maintainable.
