ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Court has flatly reje­c­ted a claim of Senator Azam Swati that he had stayed at its judicial lodges in Quetta, where he claimed his objectionable video was made and sent to his family recently.

On Saturday, the PTI leader burst into tears before the media, saying his wife had received a video featuring him and her and about which he could not share further details because the “daughters of my country are listening”.

He then blamed the interior minister and two milit­ary officers for conspiring aga­inst him and said they should be held accountable if something happened to him.

The senator, who was arrested in mid-October for a controversial tweet critical of the military leadership and later released on bail, said his daughter had told him that the video was from when he and his wife had visited Quetta. Recalling that visit, he said Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani had made arrangements for them to stay at the Supreme Court’s judicial lodges in Quetta. The development was widely condemned across party lines.

Responding to Mr Swati’s claims, the Supreme Court said in a statement on Sun­day that the senator “never used/stayed in Supreme Court Judges Rest House at Quetta”, which it said was being managed and supervised by its registrar office in Islamabad and was meant for the use of serving and former Supreme Court judges.

The top court said that according to Balochistan’s special branch, Mr Swati, in fact, stayed at the Balochistan Judicial Academy (Judicial Complex Quetta), “which is not under the control of the Supreme Court of Pakistan”.

Soon after the court’s statement, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry appeared to mock it, describing it as “an attempt by the registrar to placate the judges about the security of their lodges”.

Meanwhile, the Senate chairman has formed a special 14-member committee — including the leaders of all parliamentary parties in the upper house — to investigate the matter and present its report within 30 days after its first meeting.

Senator Mohsin Aziz will represent the PTI in place of Mr Swati to “avoid any conflict of interest”, the Senate’s notification said.

Meanwhile, the Balochistan Judicial Academy has termed the report of Balochistan’s special branch “misconceived and baseless”.

The academy said in a press release that it had been functioning in an old building on Anscomb Road in Quetta since September 2019 for “academic purposes without having any facility of accommodation”. Before that, it was functioning in two rented rooms and one hall in the Balochistan University Law College, it said.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan, in his press conference in Lahore on Sunday, described the matter as the “most shameful thing in the country’s history”.

The incident had “shocked the nation”, he said and called on Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial to ensure the matter is thoroughly investigated.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2022