EDITORIAL: What PTI Senator Azam Swati has been enduring for venting his anger, in a tweet, at the former army chief and another senior officer is utterly disgraceful. He may have used intemperate language but there is no justification for the treatment meted out to him for it.
Arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency for his “strongly-worded tweets”, he was allegedly subjected to torture, and in a further act of humiliation stripped naked. When briefly freed, he broke down publicly while describing the pain his family also suffered on account of a shameful video sent to his wife.
His ordeal has not ended yet. Booked in multiple cases in different parts of the country for the same ‘offence’ the 74-year-old legislator has since being moved from place to place to appear before courts.
While hearing on Monday two petitions filed by his son, the Sindh High Court stopped the police from arresting the senator in any new case until the next hearing on December 15, and apprise the court whether any of the FIRs were “materially different” from the one lodged in Islamabad.
The provincial Prosecutor General, Dr Faiz Shah, must be befuddled when asked as to how could so many FIRs (in Qambar, Shahdadkot, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Larkana, and Karachi) be lodged over one incident.
The obvious answer is that those whose sensitive feathers were ruffled had the ability and the resolve to get that done. Where the proceedings are headed now is clear from the court’s remarks that in view of the Supreme Court judgement in the ‘Mst Sughran Bibi vs. the State’ case no separate FIRs can be lodged for any new version of the same incident. Earlier, Balochistan High Court had also quashed all identical cases registered against the senator.
Unfortunately, the ruling PDM coalition has not helped a fellow politician. Instead it has chosen to act as a disinterested bystander. Same goes for others in a position to do something about it. Notably, after PTI senators protested over Swati’s arrest and alleged torture, the upper house had passed a bill linking arrest of a parliamentarian to the permission granted by the National Assembly Speaker or Senate Chairman.
Another bill also criminalised torture of under-custody accused. So far, the Senate Chairman is not known to have taken cognisance of Swati’s arrest without his permission nor making any effort to put an end to his time of tribulation. That says a lot about the state of democratic freedoms in this country.
No one deserves to be treated in this way, least of all a member of Parliament. If a transgression was committed it should have been addressed via due process. Swati, in fact, is not alone in facing serious trouble for causing annoyance to the powers that be.
Several journalists as well as private citizens have similarly been traumatised. That may have given some satisfaction to those responsible, but not without undermining the image of the institution they represented in the public eye. Hopefully, the new leadership will distance itself from all such unsavoury practices.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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