Requests court to summon former counsel as ‘he is the first state counsel we trusted’
Human Rights lawyer and social activist Imaan Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha. Photo File
Lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha Advocate, raised objections after their state-appointed counsel withdrew from the case of ‘controversial tweets’, being heard in the Islamabad High Court.
“He was the first state counsel we trusted,” Mazari said, referring to Shakeel Jutt and asked the court to place her statement on record, after which she formally recorded it. “We did not express a lack of confidence in state counsel Shakeel Jutt,” she said, adding that Jutt’s application to withdraw from the case contained incorrect information.
Mazari further stated that the court had not objected when Jutt disclosed that certain questions had been dictated to him.
Advocate Jatt, who appeared for the first time on Tuesday as the court-appointed defence counsel for Imaan and Hadi, had earlier declined to cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses, saying he could not put forward ‘dictated’ questions.
Read: Imaan Mazari’s husband arrested in ‘controversial’ tweet case
“I support a fair trial. I cannot ask questions that are dictated to me, my conscience does not allow it,” he mentioned. He further claimed, without providing specifics, that he had been given a list of 15 questions with instructions to put them during the cross-examination.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Mujooka, who was hearing the case, granted the husband and wife time until 1.30 pm to consult their new counsel, after which the hearing resumed.
“When your defence lawyers do not conduct cross-examination, the new state counsel will step in,” Judge Mujooka responded.
The court provided Chattha with a copy of the application submitted by former state counsel Shakeel Jutt. Chattha stated that he and his wife never expressed a lack of confidence in their counsel and requested the court to issue a summon to Shakeel Jutt.
“This is not the appropriate forum for issuing such a summon,” the prosecution argued. “A sessions judge is the proper forum to call a state counsel,” the prosecution added.
Read More: Repeated adjournments mar Imaan, Hadi trial proceedings
The NCCIA has registered a case against Mazari and Chattha; both are accused of posting ‘anti-state’ sentiment on X. The couple was formally charged on October 30, a day after Chattha was arrested outside the courtroom for failing to appear. Mazari maintained that video footage showed him ‘inside and outside the courtroom’.
After his release, Chattha told reporters that he had arrived five minutes early for the October 29 proceedings, yet the judge had issued an arrest warrant ‘in front of him’.
Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Mazari also claimed that the court had ‘forcibly appointed a state counsel for her and Chattha.
