Court hears bail petition of Azam Swati in Tweets case

ISLAMABAD: A court on Wednesday heard bail after arrest petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Azam Khan Swati in the case of controversial tweets, ARY News reported.

Azam Khan Swati’s counsel Babar Awan during his arguments on bail read the FIR before the court and said that his client posted the tweet at 7:00 and FIR was registered at 1:00, “When the inquiry initiated,” he questioned. “The action taken within few hours, how the FIA could arrest a person without any inquiry,” the counsel posed question. “A complainant emerged at 1:00am in night after 7:00pm tweet,” Awan said.

“Proceedings begin with notice and registration of case, the action has been taken in this case without any inquiry,” the counsel argued. “You should consider non-bailable clauses and not the bailable,” judge remarked.

“Azam Swati has been a professional lawyer,” Awan said. “You are also lawyer,” the judge remarked. “The government is same, today I am pleading for someone’s bail, tomorrow I might be standing on the other side,” Babar Awan said. “They even took tablets of the children from home,” Awan said.

Special Prosecutor Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Rizwan Abbasi sought more time for preparation of his arguments from the court. “You are not a child to be given time for preparation,” the judge remarked.

The court, however, granted the plea of the prosecutor and adjourned further hearing till tomorrow for arguments of the prosecutor.