The physical remand is to last until December 3. The PTI Senator was arrested for the second time in two months by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials over tweets he had posted that were deemed 'offensive' to senior military officials.
In the hearing today, Swati was not present in person and his lawyer Babar Awan requested the judge that Swati be allowed to attend via video link as he was facing life threats and coming to the court in person could be dangerous. The hearing was presided over by Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Bashir, who approved the request.
The FIA had requested that the physical remand of Swati be extended for six days as they needed to further investigate his Twitter account and mobile phone. However, turning dow the request for a six-day extension, the judge allowed for a four-day extension until December 3, and adjourned the hearing.
Senator Azam Swati was arrested on Sunday after two separate FIRs were registered against him in Sindh and Balochistan, terming his tweets against the military as 'derogatory'. The FIR said that he conducted himself “with malafide intentions and ulterior motives, started [a] highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions” and senior government functionaries, including outgoing army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.