Monday, Senator Azam Swati of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) wrote a letter of mistrust to Chief Justice Amir Farooq of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) requesting that his bail plea be transferred to another IHC judge.
Swati stated in his letter that he is being held in a judicial lockup for a "false case."
He stated, "the long delay calls for 'justice delayed is justice denied,'" referring to his writ petition No. 4441/2022, which Justice Farooq denied.
He emphasized that this was a "paramount phrase" that was necessary because the chief justice's late order caused Swati to be transferred from Islamabad.
"I was kidnapped and was wrongfully taken from PIMS Emergency clinic on December 2, where I was conceded, to Quetta then to Sindh and where 46 bogus FIRs were documented against me," Swati composed.
In addition, he stated that the IHC CJ had rendered a decision regarding a tweet that his attorneys had presented to Special Court Judge Raja Asif Mehmood. Mehmood was “transferred immediately for reason unknown to all of us,” and a new judge was appointed after several days of delay. He rejected Swati's bail application "without going into merit and without considering any legal basis and ground."
The senator argued that the IHC CJ should not have been consulted before the special court judge was transferred.
He wrote, "I know it was done without legal or procedural basis for a reason that we did not know."
Additionally, Swati argued that he has "factual and legal basis to believe that I do not expect justice from your court due to bias based on "Asif Zardari case," in which supreme court so well said that if a reasonable man would say that the judge was biased and bias may be caused by a judgement, order, or observation of superior court, bias would vitiate the confidence."
As a result, he came to the conclusion that he has "no confidence" in Justice Farooq's court and requested that his bail application be transferred "to any other judge of the IHC," claiming that this was in the best interest of justice and to safeguard his constitutional and legal rights.
This letter came just hours after the IHC sent the state notices regarding the senator's post-arrest bail application.
Babar Awan appeared in court on Azam Swati's behalf, who had been arrested for controversial tweets that he had posted about the armed forces. The plea was heard by Amir Farooq, Chief Justice.
The petition's respondents were the Federation, FIA Cybercrime, and officer Anisur Rehman.
The complaint against Swati was made by Rehman on behalf of the FIA Cybercrime Wing.
The appeal expressed that Swati didn't post the supposed tweets and that he in no way wanted to criticize any state establishment.
In addition, the plea stated that the prosecution has no evidence against Azam Swati even after the investigation was concluded.
"The candidate is 75 years of age and experiencing a coronary illness," the direction argued.
The petition stated that all cases against Swati are based on documentary allegations, and that imprisonment would be equivalent to being convicted prior to trial.
The court served notices on the state and the relevant departments and requested responses by the following Monday, January 2, 2023.
The senator applied for bail at a special court in Islamabad last week. However, the plea was rejected by Special Judge Central Azam Khan on the grounds that Swati had "committed the same offence twice."
Prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi talked about how to verify an account on Twitter during the hearing. He mentioned that Swati's account had a "blue tick," which indicated that the PTI senator owned the account.
Prosecutor Abbasi informed the court, in opposition to the bail application, that Swati attempted to construct a narrative against the Pakistan Army.
Sohail Khan Swati, Swati's attorney, argued that screenshots of his client's tweets were used to build the case against him. He also said that screenshots cannot be used to build a cybercrime case because they are easy to fake.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) booked Swati in Islamabad on November 27 for a "campaign of intimidating tweets against state institutions."
The FIA's cybercrime unit had arrested Swati twice in less than two months for tweeting about army officials.