Court grants bail after Azam Swati surrendered

Former federal minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Azam Swati surrendered himself before the court of Special Judge Central Islamabad on Thursday.
According to the 24News HD TV channel, former minister Azam Swati appeared in the court of Special Judge Central Islamabad Rukhshanda Shaheen along with his lawyer Ali Bihari Murtaza Turi.
Azam Swati filed a pre-arrest bail application in the court which was accepted by the special judge and granted his interim bail till April 20, 2024.
After the PTI regime change, Azam Swati was taken into custody on 13 October 2022 by the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cybercrime unit for allegedly making ‘controversial tweets’ against state institutions.
The case was registered under Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) and Section 109 of the offence of aiding and abetting.
A district and session court in Islamabad on 21 October 2022 granted him post-arrest bail against a surety bond worth one million rupees.
He was arrested again on November 27, 2022 after the FIA booked him in Islamabad over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets against state institutions”.
It was the second time that Swati was booked and arrested by the FIA over his tweets about army officials in less than two months. Islamabad High Court (IHC) approved Azam Swati’s post-arrest bail on 3 January 2023 against the submission of surety bonds worth Rs 200,000.
On September 27, 2023, the Special Judge Central — FIA’s special court — in Islamabad issued perpetual arrest warrants for Azam Swati over his controversial posts on social media in October 2022.

Reporter: Hashar Ahsan