The Islamabad High Court has granted bail to Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) Senator Azam Khan Swati in a case pertaining to Swati’s controversial tweets against former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

During the hearing Swati’s lawyer Babar Awan appeared before the court on behalf of his client and told the court that Swati’s son wanted to put his viewpoint before the court.

Swati’s son appeared before the court and said that his father had written a letter from the jail requesting to transfer the case to another bench.

Chief Justice Amir Farooq replied that the letter was before the court and a larger bench would be constituted to settle this matter once and for all.

Swati’s lawyer said the court should look into this matter today, to which the court said a larger bench could not be formed as senior judges were on leave.

Awan said that his client had instructed him to withdraw the letter against the Islamabad High Court chief justice .

At the outset of today’s hearing Awan argued that the Sindh and Balochistan High Courts had closed the cases against Swati. “I have never seen such an FIR in which the time and place of the incident are not mentioned,” he argued.

Awan said that his client was arrested without investigating the matter. “Fundamental rights have been violated in this case, a total of 52 FIRs have been registered against Azam Swati,” Awan told the court.

The court then granted bail to Azam Swati against security bond of Rs0.2 million.