ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday reserved judgement on bail plea filed by PTI Senator Azam Swati against his detention in ‘controversial tweet’ case.
A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq conducted hearing of the PTI Senator’s plea who moved the court through his counsel Babar Awan Advocate.
Previously, the IHC bench had issued notices to the state and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) directing them to submit their response in this matter, and had deferred the hearing in this matter till January 2 (today) for further proceedings.
Babar Awan Advocate appeared before the court on behalf of Azam Swati and argued in the defense of his client with the withdrawal of a letter by which Swati had expressed his lack of trust on Chief Justice IHC Justice Aamer Farooq.
Responding to this, Chief Justice IHC Justice Aamer Farooq said a larger bench would be constituted next week, since most senior judge were on vacation, so that this matter could be settled once and for all.
However, soon after today’s hearing a controversy developed when taking to Twitter, Azam Swati’s daughter Farah Swati revealed that her brother was ‘forced’ to withdraw letter of no confidence against CJ Aamer Farooq.
My brother was forced to withdraw the letter of no confidence by Justice Amir Farooq. Please report complete facts not a narrative to confuse Pakistani citizens.
— Farah Swati (@humanityhopeor1) January 2, 2023
Babar Awan said not once in his life did he see an FIR which had no mentions of date and location of the offence, and that SOPs were not followed while registering the case against 74 year old PTI Senator Azam Swati.
At one occasion, when the deputy attorney general, appeared before the court, he requested more time for the arguments, to which the CJ Justice Aamer Farooq enquired about Challan of the case. Responding to the CJ, FIA said that Challan had already been submitted on December 24, and hearing was fixed for tomorrow (Jan 3).
The deputy attorney general said that the PTI senator has committed the crime again and a case has already been pending.
The FIA said that Swati did not surrender his Twitter account. At this, the court said that the investigating agency itself ended the physical remand.
After hearing the arguments, the CJ Justice Aamer Farooq reserved the judgment.
