QUETTA: The lawyers of PTI leader, Senator Azam Swati on Thursday filed a petition to exempt him from in-person appearance on grounds of health and security.

The petition was filed by Iqbal Shah Advocate on behalf of Insaf Lawyers Forum with the Kuchlak judicial magistrate.

The application pleaded that Mr Swati has serious health issues while threats to his life also existed.

The petition cited last week’s suicide attack on a police truck at the Quetta-Chaman National Highway near Kuchlak that claimed five lives and injured over two dozen people.

They said bringing Mr Swati to appear before the court in Kuchlak was a “security risk”.

Mr Shah claimed the government was not keeping Mr Swati at the Kuchlak police station due to security reasons.

In view of the situation, he requested the court to allow Mr Swati to appear via a video link instead of in-person.

The magistrate has issued notices to the investigating officer and the prosecutor for further proceedings on the petition.The PTI senator was facing FIRs on the charges of ‘using abusive language’ and objectionable tweets against the army and officers.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2022