Tuesday, the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad registry prohibited the police from detaining PTI Senator Azam Swati in charges brought against him within the jurisdiction, which covers Mithi, Nawabshah, and Hyderabad.
The court’s orders were given at a hearing on the senator’s son Usman Swati’s motion to dismiss the accusations brought against the PTI leader.
The Federal Investigation Agency detained Swati on November 27 as a result of a “very offensive campaign of threatening tweets […] against state institutions.” She has been detained since then and is still being prosecuted. He is presently in the police’s custody at Qambar Shahdadkot.
Earlier this week, the SHC’s Karachi registry forbade the police from detaining the senator in any more instances and requested information on the charges that had already been filed against him in the province.
Noorul Haq Qureshi, the attorney for Swati, said at the hearing that the Supreme Court’s directives had been broken by the filing of many charges against the PTI leader.
The Sindh inspector general of police, the Hyderabad deputy inspector general, and the head of the Federal Investigation Agency were then asked by the court for information on the cases that had been filed against Swati.
It has further demanded replies from the case’s respondents by January 11.
Swati was first detained by the FIA in October on suspicion of publishing divisive tweets regarding the armed services, but she was eventually freed on bail.
Since then, the senator has claimed that he was tortured while in jail and has called for the dismissal of two military personnel, one of whom he used derogatory language towards in a tweet on November 26.
On November 27, the FIA detained Swati for the second time as a result of a “very offensive campaign of frightening tweets […] against governmental institutions.”
The arrest happened after the FIA filed an FIR in response to a report made by the state through Aneesur Rehman, technical assistant at the Islamabad Cyber Crime Reporting Centre.
The complaint was filed under Section 20 of the Peca as well as Sections 131 (abetting mutiny or seeking to lure a soldier away from his duty), 500 (the penalty for defamation), 501 (defamation and publication of information considered defamatory), Section 505 (statement conducing to public harm), and Section 109 (abetment) of the PPC.
The Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority barred Azam’s media coverage on all satellite TV networks after his detention in November.
Additionally, other FIRs were filed against the PTI leader in Balochistan and Sindh.
After serving his original 14-day remand, Swati was taken to Quetta from Islamabad on December 2 in one such case reported to the Kuchlak police station. The Kuchlak court magistrate then ordered Swati to spend the next five days in police detention.
However, the Balochistan High Court ruled on Friday that each of the five charges that had been brought against him in the province should be dismissed.
The PTI senator was turned over to Sindh police, nevertheless, hours after the directive was made.
The next day, Swati was the subject of two brand-new cases in Balochistan.
The cases were filed under PPC Sections 504 (intentional insult with the purpose to cause a breach of the peace), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 153A (raising hostility between various groups, etc.), 124A (sedition), and 123A (condemnation of the formation of the State and promotion of abolition of its sovereignty).
In addition, Swati’s farmhouse on Islamabad’s Murree Road has been blocked by the Capital Development Authority due to alleged construction code violations.
