ISLAMABAD: A district court in Islamabad has formally removed a disputed observation referring to “terrorist states” from the judgement in the case that led to the conviction of lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, in connection with social media posts, as per media reports that quote official sources.
As per reports, Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka expunged the paragraph from the verdict and sent a revised copy to the Islamabad High Court registrar earlier this week in a sealed envelope.
Furthermore, the judge had dictated the decision and had instructed at the initial review stage that the paragraph containing the observation should be excluded. However, due to an oversight, the stenographer retained the paragraph when preparing the final version of the judgement, which was later signed the same evening.
The error was identified after the prosecution flagged the paragraph and filed an application seeking its removal. Following this, the judge corrected the record, replaced the judgement with an amended version and forwarded an updated sealed copy to the high court.
Court sources told the media that disciplinary action had been initiated against the stenographer responsible for the lapse, and a show-cause notice had been issued.
The expunged content appeared as paragraph 36 of the verdict and contained remarks on the labelling of certain countries as “terrorist states” while discussing broader international conduct. Officials said the observation had no direct relevance to the charges in the case, which were related to alleged violations of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca).
The development came a day after the Foreign Office publicly distanced itself from the remarks. During a weekly press briefing, spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said the comments did not reflect Pakistan’s official position and had no grounding in international law or United Nations terminology.
“These were the views of the learned judge,” he said, adding that Pakistan did not recognise or endorse such classifications.
Judge Majoka had on January 24 convicted Imaan Mazari and Hadi Chattha for social media posts critical of state institutions. The court sentenced both to 17 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed fines, ruling that posts made between 2021 and 2025 amounted to anti-state content under Peca.
