ISLAMABAD: PTI Senator Azam Swati was taken into custody on Thursday for tweeting a “highly obnoxious and intimidating message” against the army chief and the state institutions, according to a criminal complaint filed by the FIA.
In his tweet, Swati blamed the army chief and his team for acquittal of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz in a high-profile money laundering case on Oct 12.
PTI Senator Azam Swati said, “Mr Bajwa congratulations to you and few with you. Your plan is really working and all criminals are getting free at cost of this country. With these thugs getting free, you have legitimised corruption. How you predict now the future of this country (sic),” he said.
Talking to reporters outside a sessions court today, the PTI Senator said he was not arrested for breaking the law, violating the Constitution or fundamental rights. He said he was arrested for “taking one name — of Bajwa — and that is the violation”.
When asked who arrested him, he said it was the FIA. When pressed about what case, he alleged he was tortured by “agencies”. “A parliamentarian has been stripped,” he said. “I am telling the nation.”
FIR
The first information report registered at the FIA’s Cyber Crime Reporting Centre in Islamabad, mentions that 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”.
The FIR adds that such “intimidating tweet/s of blaming and naming through Twitter account i.e., @AzamKhanSwatiPK, is a mischievous act of subversion to create a rift between personnel/s of The Armed Forces and an attempt to harm the State of Pakistan”.
