PTI’s Azam Swati shifted to Islamabad after court’s order that no cases should be registered against him

Senator Azam Swati — who has been in detention since November 27 over his controversial tweets about senior military officials— has been shifted to Islamabad and taken into police custody. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader was brought to the capital via a special plane from Sukkur.

On Thursday, Sindh Prosecutor General Faiz H Shah informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) of the development. During the hearing, the high court ordered that no cases should be registered against him.

A two-member SHC bench, comprising Justice KK Agha and Justice Arshad Hussain Khan, took up the plea.

The prosecutor general informed the bench at the hearing that Swati had been transferred to Islamabad and all cases registered against him in Sindh were being disposed of as C-Class, which means disposal of the case for being non-cognisable.

“Consequently, all FIRs will now become ineffective,” he said.

Speaking to the media after the hearing, Swati’s lawyer Anwar Mansoor Khan said that 34 cases were registered against his client in Sindh and all have now been categorised as “C class”.

Swati was initially booked by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Islamabad over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets against state institutions” and subsequently arrested by the agency.

Later, multiple First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered against him in Sindh and Balochistan for using “derogatory language” and “provoking the people against the army”.

Earlier this month, PTI chairman Imran Khan slammed Quetta police’s decision to take Swati from Islamabad despite his health concerns.