ISLAMABAD: A court in Islam­abad has expunged a controversial observation regarding “terrorist states” from the verdict that sent human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her spouse, Hadi Ali Chattha, to prison in the social media posts case, official sources told Dawn.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka removed the observation from the judgement and forwarded the amended version to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) registrar earlier this week in a sealed envelope, a senior court official confirmed.

Sources said the judge had dictated the judgement to his stenographer and, during the first reading, expressly directed that the paragraph containing the observation be deleted. However, the stenographer “inadvertently retained the paragraph and resubmitted the judgement”, which was signed by the judge later in the evening.

The issue came to light after the prosecution pointed out the paragraph and moved an application seeking its deletion.

Controversial observation remained due to stenographer’s ‘error’; judge forwards amended version to IHC registrar

The judge subsequently expunged the observation, placed a corrected copy on the judicial record, and dispatched another sealed copy to the IHC registrar.

Disciplinary proceedings

According to sources, disciplinary proceedings have also been initiated against the stenographer, who has been served a show-cause notice.

The deleted observation appeared in para 36 on page 18 of the verdict, where the court made remarks regarding the classification of certain countries as “terrorist states” while disc­u­s­sing the broader context of internatio­nal conduct and security narratives. The paragraph had no direct nexus with the offences on trial, which rel­a­ted to alleged violations of the Prev­e­ntion of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca).

A day earlier, the Foreign Office distanced itself from the remarks, saying they did not reflect Pakistan’s policy and had no basis in international law.

“We have seen the judgement. These are views of the learned judge,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said during a weekly media briefing, when asked about the conviction of Ms Mazari and Mr Chattha.

“Pakistan, of course, does not subscribe to this opinion. This kind of designation of terrorist states does not exist either in UN parlance or under international law,” he added.

On Jan 24, Judge Majoka convicted Ms Mazari and Mr Chattha under Peca for social media posts critical of state institutions. Both were sentenced to 17 years’ rigorous imprisonment each, along with heavy fines, over posts made between 2021 and 2025 that the court deemed anti-state.

Rights groups have condemned the verdict as “arbitrary” and “politically motivated”, arguing it targets “dissent and criticism of enforced disappearances”.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2026