ISLAMABAD: A special court in Islamabad reserved Thursday its verdict on the bail plea of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Azam Swati who was arrested for controversial tweets against the army chief and state institutions.

Special Judge Central Raja Asif heard Swati’s bail plea. During the hearing, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) prosecutor, Rizwan Abbasi, raised objection to the jurisdiction of the court in the case, saying that the case must be moved to a session court from the special court.

The prosecutor said that the PTI senator leveled allegations against the army chief and attempted to create hatred in the mind of people and Army Personnel against the army chief.

He said that the suspect stated against the army chief and institutions on a public platform.

Swati’s counsel Babar Awan argued that Swati used his constitutional right to freedom of expression.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the court reserved the verdict which will be announced tomorrow (Friday).

The former railways minister was arrested from his farmhouse in Chak Shahzad on October 13 at around 3am over a tweet in which Swati named General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the army chief, after a local court acquitted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz in a money laundering case.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) registered a case against Swati under Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

The first information report registered at the FIA’s Cyber Crime Reporting Centre in Islamabad mentioned 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”.