Azam Swati handed over to Islamabad police after the cases in Sindh declared ‘C class’
PTI Senator Azam Swati has been shifted to Islamabad and taken into the police’s custody after the cases in Sindh were declared ‘C class’.
During the hearing, Sindh Prosecutor General Faiz Shah informed the SHC that Swati’s custody has been given to Islamabad Police. He also added that the cases registered against the senator have been categorised as “C class”.
Sindh Prosecutor General further told the court that cases were registered against Azam Swati by private citizens. He added that according to the law these people were bound to record the statements.
At this, Justice Karim Khan Agha applauded the Sindh government and IG Sindh Ghulam Nabi Memon for resolving the “problem”.
On the other hand, IG Sindh apologised to the court for his comments during the previous hearing.
“I want to apologize for what happened in the previous hearing,” he said.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) barred the police from registering any more first information reports (FIRs) against Swati over his controversial tweets and speeches.
Earlier, The Balochistan High Court (BHC) ordered to quash all five first information reports (FIR) registered against PTI Senator Azam Swati for his controversial tweets against senior military officers.
On December 6, the BHC had ordered not to register any more cases against Azam Swati in the province.
On December 2, Senator Azam Swati was taken into custody by the Quetta Police from Islamabad and transferred to Balochistan, while a day before that, the District and Sessions Court of Islamabad had ordered to send him to jail on a 14-day judicial remand.
Background:
On November 27, PTI Senator Azam Khan Swati was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for his controversial tweets against senior military officials.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the FIA on the complaint of the state through Islamabad Cyber Crime Reporting Centre (CCRC) Technical Assistant Aneesur Rehman.
The complaint was registered under Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016 (Peca) which deals with offences against dignity of a person as well as Sections 131 (abetting mutiny or attempting to seduce a soldier from his duty),500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (defamation and printing of content deemed defamatory), Section 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The FIR reads: “Swati and three other Twitter accounts with malafide intentions and ulterior motives, started a highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions and senior government functionaries, including outgoing army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa”
The FIR added that such “intimidating tweets of blaming and naming” were a “mischievous act of subversion to create a rift between personnel of armed forces to harm the state of Pakistan”.
