Swati declared proclaimed offender

ISLAMABAD: The Special Judge Central (SJC) Shahrukh Arjumand has declared the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former federal minister Azam Swati a proclaimed offender in controversial tweets case filed by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) last year. 

The court has ordered that Swati should be arrested immediately and produced as soon as his whereabouts are ascertained. The court has given this order here on Monday. Earlier in May, the same special court issued non-bailable arrest warrants against the PTI leader at the request of the FIA.

Then the warrants were issued after Swati failed to appear before the court for indictment in a case pertaining to his controversial tweets. Swati’s lawyer told the court that he was not in contact with his client.

The lawyer opposed Special Prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi’s request for the issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants against Swati, arguing that the law for non-bailable arrest warrants “is very different”.

The lawyer for the FIA then told the court that Azam Swati did not appear before the court intentionally. Later, the court issued the warrants for Swati.