Swati moves SC human rights cell against privacy breach

Senator nominates senior officials for being involved in 'henious crime'

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Azam Swati on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court over the alleged violation of his dignity and privacy after his spouse was sent a private video of the two of them.

Swati filed a five-page application before the SC Human Rights cell, wherein he narrated how the objectionable video of him and his wife was received.

The applicant maintained that the “heinous incident is [the] gravest violation of humanity, human rights and fundamental constitutional rights enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan” and that the applicant was a member of the Senate and citizen of Pakistan thus reserved “the right to be protected in accordance with the law and the Constitution”.

The application requested that the court being the “custodian of the Constitution” should “safeguard sanctity, honour, privacy and respect of the applicant in [a] most effective manner to ensure the protection and privacy of the citizens of Pakistan and the families in accordance with the law and the Constitution”.

The application highlighted that after Swati’s press conference which discussed the incident, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) issued a “press release on behest of incumbent Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan on the directions of the DG (FIA) declaring the video fake and fabricated”.

The senator nominated senior officials for being involved in “committing this heinous crime and violation of human rights, privacy and dignity of man”.

The plea further stated that the FIA’s claims were “astonishing … because neither I nor my wife or my son shared our very personal video with FIA” and no “application was made to them to enquire about this unfortunate incident verifying the authenticity of our very personal video”.

“It is mind-boggling to find that this purported action on behalf of the FIA declaring our very personal video is highly suspicious and it is considered a malafide and deliberate- attempt to cover up the most heinous assault on the rights of the applicants and his family in a most crude and abnormal manner”, the application stated.

Read SC's 'human rights cell' probing Swati's matter

The petition detailed that on Friday, November 4, 2022, at 7:29 pm, Swati’s wife Tahira Swati, and his son Usman Swati both, received a video on their phones.

“My wife called me after watching remembering and confirming the details of the aforementioned video. She was sobbing uncontrollably and was hardly able to utter any words. Upon my repeatedly asking her what had happened, all my wife could say was that someone had sent her an objectionable video,” the application said.

The PTI senator then proceeded to explain to his spouse that the persons who “forcibly” took him away on October 13 had stripped him naked and claimed that they must have made a fake video. However, his wife refused to listen.

“I called my daughter Farhana Swati from my P.S. (personal secretary) Tufail’s phone number to her phone number at 9:11 pm on 4th November”, the application stated, furthering that Swati spoke to his daughter for five minutes and nine seconds.

Soon after his daughter “while sobbing and crying uncontrollably” informed him that it was a private video of Swati and his wife.

The petition also stated that the “main part of the video is genuine” and was taken on a visit to Quetta on August 20, 2022.

The applicant claimed that the room “must have been completely changed to cover and alter the look”.

It further stated that Swati “feared that the same powerful perpetrators who forcibly took” him away earlier, who had “illegally and unconstitutionally inflicted custodial torture” on him, had committed the “heinous crime” of recording the “very personal” video of him and his wife.

Swati advised his family to relocate to Abbottabad from Islamabad and told his son to summon Swati’s wife, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren to the United States.