— Senator seeks consolidation, transfer of cases registered in Sindh, Balochistan to Islamabad
LAHORE: A leader of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party petitioned the Supreme Court through its sub-office in Lahore against the arrest of Senator Azam Khan Swati on charges of sending out tweets critical of former chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa and featuring slurs.
In her petition, Dr Yasmin Rashid, health minister of Punjab, told the top judicial forum the septuagenarian parliamentarian was taken into custody in a political move, before requesting the judges to punish the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for making the “illegal” move.
The agency arrested Swati, 75, on Sunday, the second time in as many months, after he pressed the former army chief on details of his financial assets during a public rally in Rawalpindi the previous night, according to members of the opposition party.
He was last arrested by the agency in the second week of October in a midnight raid at his residence in Islamabad. His lawyer Babar Awan alleged at the time that Swati’s house was raided without a search warrant. “He was blindfolded and treated like a terrorist,” he had told the press.
In her petition, Rashid said the raiding team meted out ill-treatment to members of Swati’s family present during his arrest, and called on the apex court to take action against the agency for doing so.
It also asked the judges to ensure the sanctity of the Parliament during such matters.
Rashid also said the women MPs of the party will protest against the treatment meted out to women members of Swati’s family by Rana Sanaullah Khan, the minister for interior.
“We are hopeful the chief justice would give justice to us,” the minister said, adding she will also file a plea against Maulana Fazl ur-Rehman, the chief of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), for using derogatory language against women supports of the PTI.
SWATI SEEKS TRANSFER OF CASES TO ISLAMABAD
Meanwhile, Swati also approached the Supreme Court seeking to transfer over a dozen first information reports (FIRs) registered against him in Sindh and Balochistan over the tweet and the comments during the rally to Islamabad.
The plea was moved by his lawyer Babar Awan in which the federation, director general of the FIA and inspector general of Sindh and Balochistan police were nominated as respondents.
Swati said the agency implicated and arrested him in a “false case”, noting that at least 16 cases were registered against him across the country.
He said he faces a security threat and has been advised against personally appearing to attend hearings in those cases. In such a scenario, the senator appealed to the court to order the consolidation and transfer of the cases to Islamabad.
The senator also appealed to the court that the “operation of FIRs” registered against him be suspended until his plea is heard.
“The petitioner invokes Constitutional jurisdiction of this honourable court inter alia on the question of larger public importance and seeks the remedy of transferring all the FIRs at one place/jurisdiction to enable the petitioner to effectively defend himself,” read the petition.
