Pakistani rights activist Imaan Zainab arrested day after speech criticising Army as ‘terrorists’

Who is Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir?

The 26-year-old Mazari-Hazir is a social activist from Pakistan. Her mother, Shireen Mazari, is a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader who had served as the country’s human rights minister in the Imran Khan Cabinet, between 2018 and 2022. Shireen herself had been briefly arrested in May 2022 in an alleged land encroachment case.

A graduate of the University of Edinburgh in the UK, Mazari-Hazir has had several run-ins with the Army. In 2022, a case was filed against her by the Pakistan Army for allegedly “abusing and defaming the senior command”. It was later dismissed after she expressed “regret” over her words.

The latest development came after she addressed a rally of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (Pashtun Protection Movement or PTM) in the country’s capital on August 20. In a video of the speech shared on social media, Mazari-Hazir is heard referring to the Pakistan Army as “terrorists”.

“You are being stopped, as if you are terrorists, while the real terrorists are sitting in GHQ [Pakistan’s military headquarters],” she said.

Hours later, she took to Twitter to share that “unknown persons” had breached the security measures in her house and “jumped over” the gate.

Unknown persons breaking down my home cameras banging gate jumped over

— Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir (@ImaanZHazir) August 19, 2023

Her mother, Shireen Mazari said that plainclothes police had broken down their door and taken Mazari-Hazir away without “warrants or any legal procedure.”

Just now police women, plainclothes people and r ager types took my daughter away after braking down our front door. Taking away our security cameras and her laptop and cell. We asked who they had xome for and they just dragged Imaan out. They marched all over the house. My…

— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) August 19, 2023

“Twenty men went upstairs. They found the room, turned it upside down and seized her laptop and cell phone,” she told Dawn, adding that they did not allow her daughter to even change her clothes before taking her away. “There were six female officers that I saw but there was no male wearing the blue uniform of Islamabad Police,” she added.

🚨🚨#BREAKING: @ICT_Police and plainclothes men took away lawyer @ImaanZHazir. Without any warrant they forcefully entered in her home, broke their doors, took away her cellphone, laptop and searched her room. Even her mother and guards phones and CCTV setup taken away! pic.twitter.com/UIwz0wdCNB

— Asad Ali Toor (@AsadAToor) August 19, 2023

What are the cases against her?

Mazari-Hazir and Wazir have been arrested for “attempting to create distance between Pakhtuns and the army and spreading fear in the public by threatening of marching towards Islamabad” during the PTM rally.

They have been charged under several sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) related to rioting, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation, obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions, assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, among others, reported Dawn.