ISLAMABAD: Senators of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) have taken up the issue of brutal torture against one of their collage, Senator Azam Swati, before the Chief Justice of Pakistan by writing a joint letter seeking his attention and intervention by way of Suo Motu action.
The move came after yesterday’s presser by Party Chairman Imran Khan who had decided to take up the issue at domestic and international human rights fronts.
In their letter, the PTI senator narrated the circumstances involving the recent arrest and reported custodial torture inflicted on Senator and former Federal Minister Muhammad Azam Khan Swati.
They wrote that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided the private dwelling of Senator Swati in Islamabad in the early hours of Thursday, 13th October 2022, ransacking his home.
During the raid, a range of electronic items, right down to the belonging of his grandchildren, were seized by FIA personnel, and all of this was attributable to a so called “controversial” tweet posted by Senator Swati the night before, which was deemed a cybercrime, while many other well-known personalities who had previously availed cyber space to say much worse things on the same subject are roaming scot-free.
They wrote that this flies in the face of equal protection of law that is guaranteed to every citizen in terms of the Constitution of Pakistan.
When Senator Swati was first produced in Court later on the day of his arrest, he stated that he had been stripped naked and tortured all night. “Furthermore, when he was subsequently produced in Court, several of us were present when he showed to the Court various parts of his body bearing injuries. He even informed the Judge that he had suffered injuries on his private parts, which he was ready to show to the Judge in the privacy of his retiring room,” the letter reads.
All of this, Senator Swati has claimed, was due to the custodial torture inflicted on him while he was held by FIA.
The Senators wrote that this was grossly contrary to the inviolability of dignity of man as promised by the Constitution of Pakistan as well as international conventions signed by our country, due to which it was respectfully submitted that allegations made by a sitting Senator and senior citizen as aforesaid rise to the level of a matter of public importance involving the violation of fundamental rights, and your good self as the Chief Justice of Pakistan may be pleased to take Suo Moto action against this in terms of Article 184 (3) of the Constitution of Pakistan.
