ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Bar Association has announced a strike for Monday, January 26, to protest the allegedly unfair treatment and unprofessional attitude of the police.
The decision was reached during a joint session of the Islamabad Bar Council and the IHC Bar held at the Bar office here on Saturday.
The meeting participants strongly condemned the police’s behavior toward President and Secretary of the IHC Bar. They also denounced the move to bar lawyers from attending the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) and demanded an immediate end to the harassment of the legal community.
Leadership appealed to the legal fraternity to abstain from appearing in court on January 26. They reaffirmed their commitment to the rule of law and expressed their determination to maintain lawyer unity.
Earlier in the day, the District and Sessions Court of Islamabad sentenced activists Imaan Zainab Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha to 17 years’ imprisonment each in an offensive, misleading, and anti-state tweets case.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka announced the verdict, imposing a fine of Rs36 million each on both convicts. Both convicts were produced before the court via video link from Adiala Jail.
According to the verdict, the court awarded five years’ rigorous imprisonment to each accused under Section 9 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 10 years’ imprisonment under Section 10, and two years’ imprisonment under Section 26-A, bringing the cumulative sentence to 17 years each.
The court ruled that the prosecution had successfully proven its case against both accused. A day earlier, Mazari and Chattha were arrested in Islamabad. The couple had secured pre-arrest bail on Wednesday after they failed to appear before the court.
They were detained near Serena Chowk by a special police squad while travelling from the Islamabad High Court Bar to the District Courts. At the time of their arrest, they were accompanied by Islamabad High Court Bar Association President Wajid Gillani and Manzoor Jajja.
Earlier, Mazari and Chattha had taken refuge at the Bar president’s office after arrest warrants were issued in connection with a new FIR registered at Kohsar Police Station on July 26, 2025, following a protest by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC).
The FIR was registered shortly after the Islamabad High Court reinstated their bail in a separate case under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.
