ISLAMABAD     -     Senator Azam Swati, who had been in detention since late November over his controversial tweets about senior military officers, was released from an Islamabad sub-jail on Tuesday. Swati was arrested on November 27 after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) booked him in Islamabad over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions”.

It was the second time that Swati was booked and arrested by the FIA over his tweets about army officials in less than two months. Last month, the senator approached a special court in Islamabad for bail. However, Special Judge Central Azam Khan dismissed the plea ruling that he had “committed the same offence twice”. Subsequently, Swati filed a post-arrest bail petition through his lawyer Babar Awan in the IHC, challenging the special court’s orders. On Monday, the IHC approved Swati’s post-arrest bail against the submission of surety bonds worth Rs200,000.