The Islamabad High Court on Monday issued notices to the state and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) while hearing a bail petition filed by PTI Senator Azam Khan Swati seeking his release in a case related to controversial tweets.

Swati was arrested on November 27 after the FIA booked him in Islamabad over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions”. It was the second time that Swati was booked and arrested by the FIA over his tweets about army officials in less than two months.

Last week, the senator approached a special court in Islamabad for bail. However, Special Judge Central Azam Khan dismissed the plea ruling that he had “committed the same offence twice”.

Subsequently, Swati filed a post-arrest bail petition through his lawyer Babar Awan in the IHC, challenging the special court’s orders.

The plea, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, named the state and Aneesur Rehman, the technical assistant at FIA’s Cybercrime Reporting Centre in Islamabad, as respondents. The FIA criminal complaint was filed through Rehman.

Awan appeared before the IHC as it took up Swati’s petition on Monday. During the hearing, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq issued notices to the respondents and adjourned the hearing till January 2 (Monday).

Speaking to the media outside the IHC, Awan quoted a judgement authored by IHC Justice Babar Sattar wherein he said that mere tweets could not incite a mutiny in the army.

He also lashed out at the authorities for being unable to prepare a challan against Swati after registering a first information report. Swati said that the law required authorities to prepare a challan within 17 days of registering a case.

“Those experts in leaks are sitting in the PM House and indulging in propaganda,” Awan claimed.

He said the country was heading towards default as foreign exchange reserves had dropped to an alarming level, adding that citizens were withdrawing dollar holdings from commercial banks.

Petition

The petition states that Swati was “falsely implicated due to political influences of a hostile regime” and the cases against him were registered with “malafide intention”.

It recalled that Swati was earlier remanded into FIA’s custody but nothing “incriminating” was recovered from him and hence he was sent to jail on judicial remand.

The petition pointed out, the senator was abducted from the Pims Hospital later — where he was taken for medical treatment — in the “aircraft of IG Police Balochistan”. “However, during the course of physical remand, the honourable Balochistan High Court was pleased to quash all the FIRs [registered against him] in two petitions.”

The BHC had also barred the police from filing further cases against him.

“But he [Swati] was again kidnapped in other FIRs lodged against him in Sindh,” the petition said, adding later on the Singh High Court (SHC) had placed all the FIRs against him in C-class.

It contended that the entire case against Swati consisted of a “documented allegation” and that there was no “useful purpose” of keeping him in custody.

“The investigation in the case has already been completed and the petitioner is no more required for the purpose of investigation.”

The plea also pointed out that the “alleged tweets were not posted by the petitioner nor he had any intention to defame any respectable institution” and that the prosecution had no evidence against him.

Subsequently, it requested that Swati should be granted post-arrest bail till the conclusion of the trial “in the best interest of justice”.

Arrests over tweets

Swati was first arrested by the FIA on charges of posting controversial tweets about the armed forces in October and was later released on bail.

The senator has alleged since that he was tortured in custody and demanded the removal of two military officials, one of whom he used foul language against in his tweet on November 26.

On November 27, the FIA arrested Swati for the second time over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions”.

The arrest came after an FIR was registered by the FIA on the complaint of the state through Islamabad Cyber Crime Reporting Centre Technical Assistant Aneesur Rehman.

The complaint was registered under Section 20 of Peca as well as Sections 131 (abetting mutiny or attempting to seduce a soldier from his duty),500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (defamation and printing of content deemed defamatory), Section 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) and 109 (abetment) of the PPC.

Following his arrest in November, the Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority prohibited Swati’s media coverage on all satellite TV channels.

Separate FIRs were also registered against the PTI leader in Balochistan and Sindh as well.

On December 2, Swati was brought to Quetta from Islamabad in one such case, registered at the Kuchlak police station, a day after a court in the capital approved his 14-day judicial remand.

But on December 9, the Balochistan High Court ordered the quashing of all five cases initially registered against him in the province.

Hours after the order was issued, the PTI senator was handed over to Sindh police while his lawyer said two new cases were registered against Swati in Balochistan. Later, another case was registered against Swati in Balochistan.

The cases were registered under Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups, etc), 124A (sedition), and 123A (condemnation of the creation of the State, and advocacy of abolition of its sovereignty) of the PPC.

On December 13, the SHC restrained police from arresting Swati in cases registered against him within the limits of SHC’s Hyderabad registry and Karachi and on December 15, the SHC directed provincial authorities to disposed of all cases against Swati as C-Class.

At the same hearing, the Sindh prosecutor general had informed the court that Swati had been shifted back to Islamabad, where his judicial remand was extended for another 15 days in the FIA case.

Recently, the BHC ordered the quashing of three remaining FIRs registered against the senator in the province.