Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Chattha, both lawyers, were arrested on January 23, 2026, and sentenced the following day by an Islamabad sessions court to a combined 17 years in prison each under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA). The charges stemmed from social media posts made between 2021 and 2025 that prosecutors described as anti-state, but which rights groups say largely consisted of criticism of the military, advocacy for missing persons, and support for Baloch and Pashtun activists — long-standing themes in Mazari-Hazir's human rights work.

Both were convicted via video link and had boycotted the trial court proceedings. Amnesty International and UN experts have called the convictions an attack on free expression and described the couple as prisoners of conscience, while a coalition of more than 100 journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders issued a joint statement demanding their release.

The couple has spent months seeking relief through the courts. After delays at the Islamabad High Court, the Supreme Court intervened in May 2026, directing the IHC to decide their sentence-suspension pleas within two weeks — a deadline that was not met. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) subsequently petitioned the Supreme Court to withdraw that order, arguing the matter belonged before the high court.

With the case still unresolved, the Supreme Court took it up directly. A three-member bench issued notices to the federal government and other respondents in early July and fixed the next hearing for July 21 — the day after Mazari-Hazir's birthday.

The timing has drawn attention on social media. Journalist Asad Ali Toor posted a birthday tribute recalling a visit to Imaan's room on a previous birthday, describing how she and Chattha had by then already missed both Eid holidays, her mother's birthday, and her own birthday behind bars. He noted the irony that while she marks this birthday in solitary confinement, the Supreme Court would be hearing her petition for suspension of her sentence the same week.

Journalist Alifya Sohail drew a similar contrast, noting that last year Imaan had spent her birthday standing in the rain alongside Baloch mothers outside the National Press Club, while this year she spends it in Adiala Jail as the Supreme Court hears her and Hadi's suspension-of-sentence appeals the following morning.

The Supreme Court's July 21 hearing will determine whether Mazari-Hazir and Chattha's sentences are suspended while their broader appeal against the conviction remains pending before the Islamabad High Court. Until then, both remain in custody at Adiala Jail, more than six months after their arrest.