File photo of Azam Swati
A special court of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday issued perpetual arrest warrants for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Azam Khan Swati over his continued absence from proceedings into his posts on Twitter allegedly maligning senior military officers.
The FIA initially arrested Swati over the controversial posts in October 2022, with him subsequently alleging he was tortured in custody. He then demanded the removal of two military officials, singling out one of them for abuse in a tweet posted on Nov. 26. A day later, the FIA re-arrested Swat over his “campaign” of “intimidating” tweets targeting state institutions. His second detention spanned over a month, with his release occurring in January after he secured post-arrest bail from the Islamabad High Court. In his petition, he denied making the offending posts, but in public appearances continued to assert the same narrative.
There have, thus far, been three hearings into the case, with Swat refusing to attend all of them. In May, the court issued non-bailable arrest warrants against him. A month later, it declared him a proclaimed offender. During today’s proceedings, Special Judge Central Shahrukh Arjumand issued a perpetual arrest warrant for Swati over his repeated failure to attend hearings and ordered the FIA to arrest him on sight and present him before the court.
Swati has been in hiding and evading arrest since the May 9 riots after police implicated him in the unrest. He is among the PTI leaders declared proclaimed offenders in the various cases registered in the aftermath of the riots.