KARACHI: A district and sessions court in Islamabad granted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) a one-day extension in the physical remand of PTI leader Senator Azam Swati on Sunday in a case related to a tweet against state institutions, including the army chief.

Duty Magistrate Shoaib Akhtar directed officials to present Mr Swati in court tomorrow.

During the hearing, the prosecutor read out Mr Swati’s tweet in which he had sarcastically congratulated “Mr Bajwa” and a few others.

While requesting for a 14-day remand, Prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi said it was necessary to recover the senator’s mobile phone.

PTI leader claims he was ‘handed over to other institutions’

“The suspect is a political person who has hundreds of thousands of followers. He named the head of the armed forces in a tweet from his verified account. “The investigation officer needs more time,” he informed the court.

On the other hand, Swati’s counsel Babar Awan requested the court to not grant the FIA physical custody of his client.

Awan said his client’s house had been “raided without a warrant”. A warrant issued by a magistrate was required before such a raid, which was not shown, he argued.

“They [FIA] are saying the army was defamed … They should keep an eye on Swat instead of Swati,” he said, referring to a resurgence of terrorism in the valley.

Subsequently, the magistrate extended Swati’s physical remand for another day.

Separately, while speaking to the media outside the court, the PTI senator alleged that he had been “handed over to other institutions” after the FIR was registered, adding that those “institutions” had tortured him.

“I will reveal them in a constitutional manner … [Interior Minister] Rana Sanaullah and DG FIA [Mohsin Butt] have wronged me.”

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2022