Islamabad’s Special Central court judge Azma Khan throws out Senator Azam Khan Swati’s bail plea in controversial tweets case
ISLAMABAD, Dec 21, (SABAH): An Islamabad court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former federal minister Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati in the controversial tweets case against him, saying the “same offence” has been committed twice.
The verdict was issued by Islamabad Special Judge Central Azam Khan. He had reserved the judgment earlier on Wednesday.
During the hearing, prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi explained the court the process of verifying a Twitter account. He added that Swati has a “blue tick” on his Twitter account and is followed by famous personalities. “Famous journalists and political personalities follow Azam Swati,” said the lawyer. He added that the senator has never distanced himself from the account.
“There is no question that the Twitter account is not of Azam Swati,” said Abbasi. While concluding his arguments the prosecutor and government lawyer urged the court not to grant bail to the senator in the case.
On the other hand, the PTI senator’s lawyer, Sohail Khan Swati, contended that a cybercrime case cannot be registered over screenshots.
The judge after hearing the arguments reserved the verdict and said that it would be issued in 20 minutes.
Last week, a district and sessions court in Islamabad approved a 14-day extension in judicial remand of the PTI senator — hours after he was shifted to Islamabad after cases against him in Sindh were disposed of for being ineffective.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) conducted hearing on plea of the PTI senator’s son against registration of cases against his father. After hearing arguments, the SHC ordered the provincial authorities that no more cases should be registered against Mr Swati.
Swati was first arrested by the FIA on charges of posting controversial tweets about the armed forces in October and was later released on bail.
The senator has alleged since that he was tortured in custody and demanded the removal of two military officials, one of whom he used foul language against in his tweet on November 26.
On November 27, the FIA arrested Swati for the second time over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions”.
The arrest came after an FIR was registered by the FIA on the complaint of the state through Islamabad Cyber Crime Reporting Centre Technical Assistant Aneesur Rehman.
The complaint was registered under Section 20 of PECA 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 PPC.
Following his arrest in November, the Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority prohibited Azam’s media coverage on all satellite TV channels.
Separate FIRs were also registered against the PTI leader in Balochistan and Sindh as well.
On December 2, Swati was brought to Quetta from Islamabad in one such case, registered at the Kuchlak police station, a day after a court in the capital approved his 14-day judicial remand.
But on December 9, the Balochistan High Court ordered the quashing of all five cases initially registered against him in the province.
Hours after the order was issued, the PTI senator was handed over to Sindh police while his lawyer said two new cases were registered against Swati in Balochistan. Later, another case was registered against Swati in Balochistan.
The cases were registered under Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups, etc), 124A (sedition), and 123A (condemnation of the creation of the State, and advocacy of abolition of its sovereignty) of the PPC.
On December 13, the SHC restrained police from arresting Swati in cases registered against him within the limits of SHC’s Hyderabad registry and Karachi and on December 15, the SHC directed provincial authorities to disposed of all cases against Swati as C-Class.
At the same hearing, the Sindh prosecutor general had informed the court that Swati had been shifted back to Islamabad, where his judicial remand was extended for another 15 days in the FIA case.
Earlier this week, the BHC ordered the quashing of three remaining FIRs registered against the senator in the province.