A district court in Quetta remanded on Sunday Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Azam Swati in police custody for five days, a week after he was arrested in Islamabad in a case related to controversial tweets against the military leadership.
This was the second time in less than two months that Swati was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) over controversial tweets about senior military leaders.
The arrest came after the FIA booked him in a case registered under Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016 (Peca), which deals with offences against the dignity of a person.
A number of first information reports (FIRs) were also registered against him in Balochistan and Sindh for using “derogatory language” and “provoking the people against the army.”
The senator was shifted to Quetta aboard a special flight amid tight security on Friday after the judicial magistrate of Islamabad handed him over to the Balochistan police.
Subsequently, Swati was presented before duty magistrate Sattar Bugti in a case registered against him at Kuchlak Police Station, with police seeking his 10-day physical remand.
The magistrate, however, approved his physical remand for five days.
After the approval of Swati’s remand, PTI leader Qasim Suri, while speaking to the media outside the court, said that the FIR against Swati was “baseless”. He added that they would be consulting lawyers on approaching the high court on the matter.
Suri claimed Swati was “unwell” and that “FIRs were registered against other PTI leaders, including party chief Imran Khan, as well”.
In Balochistan, cases against Swati have also been registered at Bela, Hub, Khuzdar, Pasni, and Zhob police stations.
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