Former federal minister Shireen Mazari on Tuesday approached the Islamabad Excessive Court docket (IHC), looking for pressing orders to permit her to satisfy her daughter Imaan Zainab Mazari and son-in-law Hadi Ali Chatha, who’re at the moment detained in Adiala Jail.
In a writ petition filed below Article 199 of the Structure, Shireen Mazari stated the 2 had been just lately sentenced to a mixed 17 years’ imprisonment by a classes court docket in circumstances linked to controversial social media posts.
The petition was filed by a crew of attorneys, together with senior advocate Kamran Murtaza, members of the Islamabad Bar Council, and office-bearers of the Islamabad Excessive Court docket Bar Affiliation and District Bar Affiliation.
She alleged that jail authorities had minimize off all contact between the detainees and their household in addition to their authorized counsel with none written order or lawful justification. Regardless of repeated requests, she claimed, she had been denied visitation rights and had not been knowledgeable about their bodily or psychological well being, medical care or residing situations.
In response to the plea, Imaan and Hadi Chatha had been convicted on Jan 24, 2026, in a case registered below the Prevention of Digital Crimes Act (PECA), 2016, and have remained in steady judicial custody since then.
The petition additional acknowledged that the couple had additionally been denied confidential entry to their attorneys, hampering their capacity to file a time-sensitive enchantment towards the conviction. It described the scenario as “incommunicado detention” and argued that it violated constitutional safeguards regarding due course of, honest trial, dignity and humane remedy below Articles 4, 9, 10-A and 14 of the Structure.
Mazari additionally cited the Punjab Jail Guidelines, 1978, and worldwide requirements, together with the UN Nelson Mandela Guidelines, contending that the state has a heightened responsibility of care in the direction of people in custody.
As interim aid, she requested the court docket to direct jail authorities to instantly permit household visits and authorized consultations till the petition is determined.
The respondents named within the case embrace the federation by the inside secretary, the inspector basic of police Islamabad and the superintendent of Adiala Jail. The IHC has but to repair a date for listening to.
