Court extends Azam Swati’s physical remand till Dec 3 over controversial tweets against military officials
An Islamabad court on Tuesday extended the physical remand of PTI Senator Azam Khan Swati for four-day in a case related to controversial tweets against senior military officers.
Senior Civil Judge Muhammad Shabbir Bhatti heard the case of PTI leader.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) requested the court to extend Azam Swati’s physical remand for another 6 days.
During the hearing, Babar Awan, the lawyer of the PTI leader, pleaded before the court to give permanent exemption from the hearings to Azam Swati citing security concerns.
“Azam Swati should not be produced before the court under further order,” Judge Bhatti remarked.
However, Judge Muhammad Bashir ordered to produce the accused via video link.
The court exted the physical remand of Azam Swati for four-day and adjourned the hearing of the case till December 3.
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”.
