ISLAMABAD: A day after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Azam Khan Swati made a shocking revelation that an objectionable video featuring him and his wife from his stay at Judicial Lodges in Quetta was sent to his wife, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Sunday clarified that Senator Swati did not stay at the said lodges during his visit there.
In response to Swati’s claim, the apex court in a statement issued here, said that the senator “never used/ stayed in Supreme Court Judges Rest House at Quetta”.
It said that according to the Balochistan Special Branch, the PTI leader had stayed at the Balochistan Judicial Academy (Judicial Complex Quetta), which was not under the apex court’s control.
The official statement by the apex court referred to a presser of Senator Swati circulating on “electronic/ social media whereby it is alleged that during his stay at Supreme Court Judicial Lodges, Quetta, some objectionable video was recorded”.
The Supreme Court Judges Rest House, Quetta is being managed and supervised by the Registrar Office Supreme Court of Pakistan Islamabad and is meant for the use of serving and former judges of the top court, the statement said. Narrating his ordeal, the PTI Senator had said that his wife had called him on Friday night and kept shouting and crying. Swati said he then asked his daughter to inquire from her mother regarding what the matter was.
Soon after the statement by the top court of the country, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry appeared to mock the apex court’s rebuttal, saying “it was an attempt by the registrar to placate the judges about the security of their lodges”.
Swati reveals his family’s privacy breached in a video leak
Swati burst into tears during a presser in Lahore, saying that his wife had received a video featuring him and her and about which he could not share further details because the “daughters of my country are listening”.
The senator had blamed the interior minister Rana Sanaullah and two military officers for conspiring against him and said they should be held accountable if something happened to him.
He had said that his daughter had told him that the video was from when Swati and his wife had visited Quetta. Recalling that visit, the senator said Senate Chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani had made arrangements for them to stay at the Supreme Court’s judicial lodges in Quetta.
The development was widely condemned from across the political aisle with lawmakers, lawyers, journalists, and civil society activists deploring the incident.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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