Imaan, Hadi pleas for early hearing adjourned until Sept 17
The Supreme Court has postponed the hearing of applications filed by rights activists Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha.
A two-member bench headed by Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim heard the applications.
The couple is seeking an early hearing of their criminal appeal against an Islamabad High Court decision related to their sentences in a social media posts case.
The Supreme Court has now fixed the next hearing for Sept 17. The bench indicated that the matter would either be decided or the applicants could withdraw their applications.
Couple seeks early hearing of criminal appeal
The applications were filed through senior counsel Faisal Siddiqi. The couple wants the Supreme Court to direct an early hearing of their criminal appeal.
Their appeal challenges the Islamabad High Court’s Feb 19, 2026 decision refusing to suspend their 17-year sentences in the social media posts case.
During the hearing, their lawyer argued that the Supreme Court had previously directed the high court to decide their applications seeking suspension of sentence within two weeks.
However, the lawyer said the high court had now scheduled the matter for Sept 8.
He raised concerns about the repeated scheduling of the case and questioned why the matter was being fixed in the high court when the Supreme Court was taking up the couple’s applications.
Lawyer raises concerns over case scheduling
The counsel told the Supreme Court that the high court fixes the case whenever the top court begins hearing the applications.
He also expressed concern that the matter could disappear from the court system because the high court had not yet issued its cause list.
The comments prompted Justice Afghan to say the court system should be allowed to be “fully exposed”.
The judge acknowledged the concern that the case might disappear from the system but stressed that the Supreme Court would remain available to hear the matter.
“Don’t worry, we are here. We will be here in the future as long as we are alive,” Justice Afghan remarked.
The observation came during a discussion about the timing of the proceedings and the different court schedules.
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Government responds to the concerns
Additional Attorney General Rana Asad told the bench that the high court has its own procedure for fixing cases.
He said cases are scheduled according to that system and suggested that the Sept 8 hearing was part of the high court’s regular process.
Justice Afghan responded that it would be better for the Supreme Court not to give an opinion about how the high court manages its cases.
The AAG also informed the bench that the annual vacation of the high court would end on Sept 6.
According to him, the high court would resume its official work after the vacation and proceed with scheduled matters.
He further argued that the applications seeking suspension of the sentences were not maintainable.
Earlier Supreme Court hearing
This is not the first time the Supreme Court has dealt with the issue of the couple’s sentence suspension applications.
On July 21, the top court had postponed the hearing in the social media posts case because the Islamabad High Court had already fixed the application for July 24.
The Supreme Court had previously directed the high court to decide the relevant applications within a specified period.
The latest proceedings again focused on the timing of the high court hearing and whether the Supreme Court should intervene to ensure an earlier hearing.
The matter will now return before the Supreme Court on Sept 17.
