ISLAMABAD - Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) yesterday arrested PTI Senator Azam Swati for allegedly tweeting a highly obnoxious and intimidating message against state institutions, including the army chief.
Swati’s tweet named the army chief, and came after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz were acquitted in a high-profile money laundering case on Wednesday last.
The first information report registered at the FIA’s Cyber Crime Reporting Centre in Islamabad mentions that Swati tweeted with “malafide intentions & ulterior motives” against “State Institutes of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its senior government functionaries including Chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan Army”.
The FIR adds that such intimidating tweets of blaming and naming through Twitter account i.e., @AzamKhanSwatiPK, is a mischievous act of subversion to create a rift between personnel of the Armed Forces and an attempt to harm the State of Pakistan. Through the tweet, the criminal complaint said, the accused “undermined the Judicial System of the country and also attempted to seduce army personnel from their allegiance to their duties as subordinates.
It alleged Swati violated the privacy and intimidated the state institutions, by using false information, “which is likely to incite, any officer, soldier, sailor, or Airman in the Army, Navy or Air Force of Pakistan to mutiny or otherwise disregard or fail in his duty as such and is also likely to cause fear or alarm in the public and may induce / incite anyone to commit an offence against the State or the State Institutions or public tranquillity”.
