Daily Times

A judicial magistrate on Thursday extended the judicial remand of PTI’s leader Azam Khan Swati for 14-day in controversial tweet case.

The court of Judicial Magistrate Shabbir Bhatti also served notice to the investigation officer (IO) for not presenting the case challan into the matter. The court said that it would order to stop the salary of IO if he again failed to submit the case challan. The court marked the attendance of Swati through video link.

Swati’s lawyer Dr Baber Awan argued that who could have a threat in matter of the said tweet and prayed the court to grant his client post-arrest bail. The court, however, extended the judicial remand of Swati.

Earlier in the day, the Sindh High Court took up a plea filed by Azam Swati’s son, Usman Swati, challenging the FIRs registered against the senator in Sindh over his tweets. At the hearing, Sindh Prosecutor General Faiz H Shah informed the SHC that Swati had been shifted back to Islamabad.

Subsequently, judicial magistrate Shabbir Bhatti resumed the hearing of the FIA case in Islamabad and enquired whether a challan had been submitted.

At that, Swati’s counsel, Babar Awan, said, “They [the prosecution] kept on saying for three days that they will present arguments, and then they got the judge transferred.” He further said the SHC and Balochistan High Court had quashed cases registered against Swati and “set a prime example of supremacy of the law”. He added, “How could tweets pose any danger to anyone?” When the judge asked whether Swati had been granted bail in the case, Awan denied, saying “They [prosecution] kept playing a game with the judge for two days.”

The court then summoned Swati and suspended the session for a while.

When the session resumed, Swati joined the hearing via a video link. “How are you Swati sahib?” the judge asked. “I am fine,” the senator replied, adding that he would continue the struggle for “supremacy of the law” and “judiciary’s independence”.

Subsequently, the IO informed the court that they were awaiting records from Twitter and a technical report to submit the challan. The court, however, directed him to submit the challan. “At least submit an interim challan,” the court said, adding that they were issuing a notice for it. The court warned IO that he would not be paid his salary if he failed to submit the challan at the next hearing. The court also allowed Swati’s lawyers to meet him and asked when would they meet the senator. It adjourned the hearing after extending Swati’s judicial remand for 14 days. Earlier, Sindh Prosecutor General Shah informed the SHC that Swati had been shifted to Islamabad and all cases registered against him in Sindh were being disposed of as C-Class, which means disposal of the case for being non-cognisable. “Consequently, all FIRs will now become ineffective,” he said.

In preceding hearings, the SHC had restrained police from arresting Swati in cases registered against him over his tweets within the limits of SHC’s Hyderabad registry – which includes Mithi, Nawabshah, and Hyderabad – and Karachi.

The directives were issued on a plea filed by the senator’s son, who sought the quashing of charges against Swati in Sindh. A two-member SHC bench, comprising Justice KK Agha and Justice Arshad Hussain Khan, took up the plea today and was informed by the prosecutor general that cases against Swati were registered on private persons’ complaints and authorities were bound by the law to record their statements.

In its short order on the plea, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the court observed that numerous FIRs were registered against Swati in Sindh when a similar FIR was already pending in Islamabad. “Lodging of more than one FIRs in respect of the same incident has been prohibited by the Honourable Supreme Court,” the court order said, adding that the Sindh prosecutor general and inspector general of police (IG) were subsequently directed to “go through all the FIRs and see if they were materially different from the FIR already lodged in Islamabad.

“After going through the FIRs lodged at Islamabad and in this province, the learned Sindh prosecutor general and inspector general of police have come to the conclusion that they are similar.” The court order said Sindh IG Ghulam Nabi Memon had then assured that all FIRs registered against Swati in Sindh over similar offences would be disposed of as C-Class. “He shall ensure that he does the same within three days of this order,” the court directed.

The order quoted the petitioner’s counsel as saying that he was satisfied with this development. During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel, Advocate Anwar Mansoor, remarked, “The Sindh IG has done a good job.” Justice Agha also credited the Sindh IG and provincial government for “resolving the matter”. Concluding the hearing, the court said there should be no more cases against Swati in Sindh.

At that, the prosecutor general assured the court that “these matters will be looked into according to the law”.