The Balochistan High Court directed police on Friday to quash all five first information reports (FIRs) registered against PTI Senator Azam Swati in the province over his controversial tweets against top military officials and release him if he was not booked in any other cases.<\/p>\n
Swati \u2014 who was arrested in Islamabad by the Federal Investigation Agency on November 27 for the second time in less than two months over strongly worded tweets about senior military leaders \u2014 was booked under Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016 (Peca), which deals with offences against the dignity of a person.<\/p>\n
Separately, he was also nominated in multiple FIRs in Balochistan and Sindh for using \u201cderogatory language\u201d and \u201cprovoking the people against the army\u201d.<\/p>\n
Following his arrest, Swati was shifted to Quetta aboard a special flight amid tight security last Friday after the judicial magistrate of Islamabad handed him over to the Balochistan police. The senator was subsequently remanded in police custody for five days on Sunday.<\/p>\n
A day later, his son, Osman Swati, approached the BHC against the FIRs registered against the senior Swati and the court had restrained the provincial government and authorities from registering any more FIRs against the senator.<\/p>\n
Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar resumed hearing the plea today and reprimanded the police for registering multiple cases against Swati.<\/p>\n
“Does the Balochistan IG (inspector general of police) know about the registration of these five cases?” he questioned.<\/p>\n
Police informed the judge that the IG did not know about the FIRs.<\/p>\n
Following that, Justice Kakar observed that further extension in Swati’s remand was not required and asked, “On what basis was his first remand approved?”<\/p>\n
When police reiterated the judge’s observation that Swati remand was not needed any longer, Justice Kakar remarked: “Why do police take steps because of which they and the court have to hide their faces?”<\/p>\n
He then directed police to quash all FIRs registered against the senator in the province and release him if he was not booked in any other cases.<\/p>\n
Swati was not presented before the court today, but Advocate General Asif Reki, Senior Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Asad Nasir and Swati’s son, Osman, attended the hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Balochistan High Court directed police on Friday to quash all five first information reports (FIRs) registered against PTI Senator Azam Swati in the province over his controversial tweets against top military officials and release him if he was not booked in any other cases. Swati \u2014 who was arrested in Islamabad by the Federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[11797,158,11628],"class_list":{"0":"post-300210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"tag-bhc","9":"tag-pti","10":"tag-senator-azam-swati"},"yoast_head":"\n