ISLAMABAD: Azam Khan Swati, a senior leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party of ex-premier Imran Khan, was remanded in custody for two days by a district and sessions court on Thursday, following his arrest over a critical Twitter post directed at Pakistan’s powerful army chief.
In his tweet, Swati taunted Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa after a court acquitted Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his son in a money laundering case on Wednesday, saying Bajwa had made the acquittal possible.
“Mr Bajwa congratulations to you and few with you. Your plan is really working and all criminals are getting free at cost of this country,” Swati tweeted. “With these thugs getting free, you have legitimized corruption. How you predict now the future of this country.”
The FIA registered a case against Swati under the cybercrime act, calling his tweet a “mischievous act of subversion” to create a rift in the armed forces and to “harm the state of Pakistan,” according to a copy shown on local media.
Investigators had asked for Swati to be held in custody for eight days. But his lawyer, Babar Awan, told AP the court allowed only two days for the probe and ordered a medical examination as Swati complained about being tortured following his early-hours arrest.
“I have not violated any law or constitution, but just used the name of Bajwa,” Swati told reporters while being taken from the court. “I was arrested by the FIA but tortured by agencies," a known reference to the intelligence apparatus of the country.
He said he wanted the country to know a lawmaker had been stripped of his clothes.
Swati is the third senior leader of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party to be arrested by the FIA. Saifullah Khan Niazi and Hamid Zaman were arrested for their alleged involvement in prohibited funding to the party.
