Daily Times

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday started the process of declaring Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Hammad Azhar and three others as proclaimed offenders (POs) in a case of torching police vehicles. The court directed the prosecution to publish a proclamation in newspapers for appearance of Hammad Azhar, Sarmad Malik, Ghulam Abbas and Ali Abbas. ATC Judge Ijaz Ajmad Buttar initiated the process under Section 87 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on an application, filed by the police. The investigation officer of Sarwar Road Police Station had filed the application with a plea to start the process of declaring the accused as proclaimed offenders for not joining the investigation and judicial proceedings. He submitted that the accused had not surrendered before the court despite issuance of their non-bailable arrest warrants. The Sarwar Road police had registered a case against the PTI leaders and workers over torching police vehicles at Rahat Bakery chowk. It is pertinent to mention here that the court had also initiated process to declare Hammad Azhar as proclaimed offender in two other cases, including the Jinnah House attack case.