A Pakistani women’s rights activist has been granted preemptive bail after the military accused her of using derogatory and hateful remarks against the country’s top general.
The order by the Islamabad High Court protects Imaan Mazari from arrest, her lawyer, Zainab Janjua, said on May 27. Under Pakistan’s legal system, a court order can be sought as protection against arrest.
The army claimed on May 26 that Mazari had made slanderous remarks against the Pakistani Army's chief of staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, accusing him of being behind the arrest of her mother, Shireen Mazari, on May 21.
Imaan Mazari’s did not offer support for her allegations against Bajwa in a video that went viral on social media.
According to Janjua, she is accused of inciting people against the armed forces and defaming Bajwa.
Her mother, Shireen Mazari, who served as a human rights minister in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, was detained by anti-corruption police over a land-grabbing allegation from decades ago.
She was released within hours after a court decided she was arrested in violation of a law saying no lawmaker can be detained without permission from the parliament speaker.
Imaan Mazari said at the time that her mother had been mistreated during the arrest.
