GENEVA: The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Committee on Human Rights has admitted Senator Azam Swati’s case at its 170th session held in Geneva from January 21 to February 02, 2023. In a detailed letter issued after the session, the IPU mentions names of General (R) Qamar Javed Bajwa, Major Gen. Faisal Naseer and Sector Commander Faheem Raza as accused.
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The IPU said its Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians noted the complaint concerning Mr. Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, submitted in due form by a qualified complainant under section I.(1)(c) of the Procedure for the examination and treatment of complaints (Annex I of the Revised Rules and Practices of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians); that the complaint concerns an incumbent member of parliament at the time of the alleged violations; that the complaint concerns allegations of enforced disappearance, torture, ill-treatment and other acts of violence, threats: acts of intimidation; arbitrary arrest and detention, inhumane conditions of detention, lack of due process in proceedings against parliamentarians, lack of due process at the investigation stage, violation of freedom of opinion and expression.
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The decisions taken by the IPU mentions that Mr Swati and several other high-ranking PTI officials have been persecuted by Pakistan’s newly established government and the security sector leadership. The decision mandates not only a trial observer but also asks for a mission of the Committee to Pakistan.
The IPU Commitee says the complainant Senator Azam Swati reported that during the night of 13 October 2022: a few hours after publishing a tweet criticizing the military for meddling in politics, Mr. Swati was abducted by a group of armed men in plain clothes claiming to belong to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), who stormed his residence and submitted him to severe beatings in front of his family before covering his head in a black cloth and taking him to an unknown location in their vehicle; where he was tortured until he lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, Mr. Swati found himself in a detention centre, where he was allegedly submitted to torture and degrading treatment and later presented with a defamation charge. He was eventually freed on bail by a special FIA court on 21 October 2022.
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The IPU further says that according to the complainant; once Mr. Swati was released on bail, he started to receive intimidating messages from people claiming to work for intelligence agencies who pressured him to stay silent and desist from exposing the alleged human rights violations that he had endured. The complainant reports that; as Mr. Swati refused to back down, his wife and daughter received an objectionable video recording of Mr. Swati and his wife. The complainant alleges that the State had violated Mr. Swati’s rights to privacy by secretly recording the video and leaking it to his wife and daughter, causing him and his entire family much distress.
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It says that according to the complainant, during the night of 26 November 2022, Mr. Swati was re-arrested at his house by agents of the FIA Cybercrime Wing and taken to prison, while his family received numerous first information reports (FIRs) filed against him by the police on account of a speech he had made hours before his arrest. In his speech, Mr. Swati questioned the source of income of the outgoing chief of staff; General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and identified the General as well as Director General of Counter Intelligence Faisal Naseer and Sector Commander Faheem Raza as the instigators of the violations against him. According to the complainant; on 2 December 2022; Mr. Swati was hospitalized with acute chest pains due to a worsening of his underlying heart condition while he was imprisoned on remand in Islamabad, but as Mr. Swati and his family were in hospital waiting to receive the results of medical examinations, state officials forcibly removed Mr. Swati from hospital and took him to an undisclosed location. The complainant reports that there was no official communication of Mr. Swati’s location for some time, which raised fears that he might be a victim of enforced disappearance. However, according to the complainant, Mr. Swati’s family received informal communications that he had been flown from Islamabad to the remote province of Balochistan, where he was to be detained on remand: and no explanation or reason was given for the sudden transfer of Mr. Swati far from the capital.
The IPU says that the complainant reported that Mr. Swati’s family members were in a state of turmoil and extremely concerned for the health of Mr. Swati, given his heart condition and his recent incarceration. Mr. Swati was finally released on bail on 3 January 2023 by the Islamabad High Court, although the bail order contained a warning that should Mr. Swati “repeat the offence” the order would be revoked.
A campaign for the release of Mr. Swati was organized by his supporters, but also by his colleagues in the Senate, who referred the matter to various authorities on his behalf. In a letter sent in January 2023, the Chairman of the Senate reported that the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights unanimously condemned the alleged torture sustained by their colleague on 20 October 2022. The Senate Chair also reported that a special parliamentary committee had been set up to investigate the allegations of breach of privacy.
