PTI Senator Azam Swati was given a two-day physical remand by an Islamabad court after being detained by the FIA early on Thursday due to a “controversial” tweet he posted on army head General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Sen. Swati got himself into trouble when he mentioned Gen. Bajwa in a tweet criticizing the acquittal of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son in the massive money laundering case that was brought against them under the PTI administration.
The senator mockingly praised “Mr. Bajwa” and a few others in a strongly worded tweet, adding, “Your strategy is actually working and all crooks are getting free at cost of this country,” and asserting that corruption had been “legitimized.”
He was then taken away from his home before daybreak on Thursday after being arrested by FIA on suspicion of instigating rebellion. The FIR was filed under the Pakistan Penal Code’s Sections 109 (abetment), 131 (inciting mutiny), 500 (defamation), 501 (publishing defamatory contents), 505 (conducting public mischief), and 500 (defamation), among other provisions (PPC).
The FIA stated that the PTI senator had tweeted “against the state institution and its senior government personnel, including head of army staff,” referring to the chief of army staff and other individuals.
The FIR stated that the accused “undermined the judicial system of the country and also attempted to seduce army personnel from their allegiance to their duties through the aforementioned tweet,” adding that “Such intimidating tweet(s) of blaming and naming through Twitter account is a mischievous act of subversion to create a rift between personnel of the armed forces and an attempt to harm the state.”
The tweet, according to the FIA, “generated suspicion towards the legal system” and was a “planned attempt to incite animosity in the minds of citizens and army members against COAS and the Pakistan Army.”
Mr. Swati “attempted to agitate the general public…by utilizing false information which is likely to inspire, any officer, soldier, sailor or airman in the army, navy or air force to mutiny,” the statement continued.
Later on Thursday, Mr. Swati was brought before Shabbir Bhatti, a senior civil judge. The FIA requested his physical detention for eight days in order to perform a technological study of the contents of his social media accounts and retrieve them. However, the court granted a two-day hold and ordered the FIA to present Mr. Swati on October 15.
After the hearing, Mr. Swati told reporters that intelligence agents had stripped him naked and tortured him. He asserted, “I was arrested for stealing Bajwa’s name, not for breaking any laws.
The PTI leader was also required to undergo a medical examination as per a court order. He underwent this examination at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), where a board of four specialists deemed his condition to be “normal,” but noted that he had a cardiac condition called hypertension and was taking medication for it.
Politicians from all parties condemned Mr. Swati’s imprisonment in the meantime. Imran Khan, a former prime minister, pledged to file a lawsuit over the imprisonment of his aide and dubbed the treatment of the senator as “shameful.”
“Azam Swati’s custodial torture over a tweet on NRO 2 is yet another disgusting deed in our history,” Imran Khan wrote in a tweet. Can anyone or any institution be made to respect by torture and intimidation… Those who have permitted the worst criminals to not only escape justice after stealing billions from the country but also to regain power are doomed to humiliation.
The arrest of the senator, according to PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, will create a negative precedent for future events.
