PTI Senator Azam Swati arrested for ‘obnoxious’ tweets against Pak military

Pakistan’s top investigative agency on Sunday arrested Azam Swati, a senior leader of former prime minister Imran Khan's party for the second time in less than two months for his “highly obnoxious” campaign against senior military officials.

Swati was previously arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in October for a controversial tweet thought to be against the armed forces.

Since he was released on bail, the senator has maintained that he was allegedly tortured in custody and has demanded the removal of two military officials, one of whom he used foul language against in his tweet Saturday, the Dawn newspaper reported.

According to the FIR, Swati and three other Twitter accounts “with malafide intentions and ulterior motives, started [a] highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions” and senior government functionaries, including outgoing army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The first information (FIR) report was registered under Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016 (Peca) by the FIA on the complaint of the state through Islamabad Cyber Crime Reporting Centre (CCRC) Technical Assistant Aneesur Rehman.

Swati on November 26 tweeted that he would go after a senior military official at every forum, the FIR stated. On November 19, @Azaadi99 shared a tweet which held generals responsible for the country’s destruction to which Swati replied with “thank you”.

Further, @Wolf1Ak on November 24 stated that “tabdeeli” had to begin by clearing the filth of the “corrupt generals” from the institution, to which Swati again replied with “thank you”.

The complaint said on Nov 24, @HaqeeqatTV_20 tweeted about outgoing General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the senator responded to it “with strong language”.

The FIR said that such “intimidating tweets of blaming and naming” were a “mischievous act of subversion to create a rift between personnel of armed forces to harm the state of Pakistan”.

Swati addressed the mega rally of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in Rawalpindi on Saturday and again mentioned his alleged torture while asking a series of pointed questions from Bajwa.

PTI Chairman and former premier Khan has also on several occasions decried Swati’s “custodial torture” in press conferences and various television interviews.

The FIA produced Swati before a judicial magistrate seeking his physical remand for eight days. After hearing the arguments, the judge granted the FIA two-day physical remand of Swati.

Taking to Twitter, Khan said he was “shocked and appalled at how rapidly we are descending into not just a banana republic but a fascist state”.

“How can anyone not understand the pain and suffering Senator Swati underwent with custodial torture, and blackmailing video of him and his conservative wife sent to his family?” he asked.

“His justifiable anger and frustration at the injustice meted out to him, especially the doors of the Supreme Court remaining closed to him despite over a fortnight of appeals by senators in support of him. So, he tweets and is arrested again. Everyone must raise their voice against this state fascism,” Khan said.