By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Senator Azam Khan Swati, a lawmaker of ousted prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was arrested on Thursday for accusing Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa of legitimising corruption of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his family
Swati was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a raid on his house, conducted in the early hours of Thursday in Islamabad following his tweet targeting General Bajwa.
The senator congratulated General Bajwa for his “plan” working and said “criminals” were going free.
“Mr Bajwa congratulations to you and few with you. Your plan is really working and all criminals are getting free at the cost of this country,” he tweeted after the acquittal of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz in an alleged money laundering case.
The FIA, which arrested Swati under a cybercrime law, in its first information report (FIR) said his tweet was a “calculated attempted” to sow “hatred in mind of people and army personnel against the Army Chief and Pakistan army”.
“Such intimidating tweets of blaming and naming is a mischievous act of subversion to create a rift between personnel of the armed forces and an attempt to harm the state of Pakistan,” the FIR said.
Swati tweeted with “malafide intentions & ulterior motives” against “State Institutes of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its Senior Government Functionaries including Chief of The Army Staff of Pakistan Army”.
“This is a calculated attempt to create hatred in the minds of people and Army Personnel/s against COAS and Pakistan Army and also created distrust towards the Judicial System. In such intimidating Tweet/s, the accused Muhammad Azam Khan Swati has attempted to provoke general public and Personnel/s of Armed Forces by trying to create a feeling of ill-will among pillars of the State.”
Swati, outside a court in Islamabad, said his only crime was naming the army chief in his tweet, for which he had been arrested.
He later told the court he had been subjected to custodial torture by policemen in plain clothes. The Islamabad court remanded the politician to police custody for two days.
Former prime minister said custodial torture of the PTI senator “for tweeting against NRO 2” was a “shameful act in our history”.
“Can torture and intimidation make people respect any individual or institution? The Holy Quran teaches us respect and humiliation are solely in Allah’s jurisdiction, which He dispenses according to our deeds,” Khan said in a tweet.
“Those who have allowed the biggest criminals not only to evade accountability after stealing billions from the nation but to come to power again are destined to be humiliated.”
The PTI party has demanded his earliest release, with senior party leader Fawad Chaudhry calling the arrest “a dangerous trend in Pakistan”.
“Reports of torture on Azam Swati are disturbing. Torturing political prisoners has become a new normal in Pakistan,” he tweeted.
In August, senior PTI leader and close Khan aide Shahbaz Gill was arrested for sedition and other charges for remarks made during a TV show. He was granted bail after five weeks in custody.
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