Sindh police take Azam Swati into custody from Quetta

Sindh police on Friday took Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Azam Swati into custody from Quetta on Friday, his lawyer Advocate Iqbal Shah said.

The development comes hours after the Balochistan High Court (BHC) directed police to quash all five first information reports (FIRs) registered against Azam Swati over his controversial tweets against top military officials.

PTI leaders criticised the development with the party’s provincial president Qasim Khan Suri saying the party was in the process of quashing the remaining FIRs against Swati after the BHC order when the Sindh police “abducted him in their special plane and took him to an unknown location”.

Former information minister and senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry claimed that Swati was shifted to Larkana before being moved to Qambar Shahdadkot in Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s plane.

“These are the human rights of a senior politician and senator of Pakistan.”

Court reprimands police chief

Earlier, during the hearing today, Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar reprimanded the police for registering multiple cases against Swati.

Police informed the judge that the inspector general of police did not know about the registration of five cases.

PTI moves SC to take suo motu notice of Azam Swati’s arrest

The BHC then directed the police to quash all FIRs registered against the PTI leader in the province and release him if he was not booked in any other cases.

In October, Swati was arrested for posting tweets against state institutions but let go.

A few weeks later, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested him again over a case related to a controversial tweet against senior military officials.

An FIR was registered by the FIA on the complaint of the state through Islamabad Cyber Crime Reporting Centre Technical Assistant Aneesur Rehman. Separate FIRs were registered against the senator in Balochistan and Sindh as well.

Following his arrest, PTI leader Dr Yasmin Rashid petitioned the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice regarding Swati's “political victimisation”.

The petition asked for immediate notice to be taken on the “illegal arrest” of the senator and the “violation of privacy of his home."

It claimed that Swati was tortured in front of his wife and kids, as well as during the custody of the FIA.