LAHORE: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Thursday initiated the proceedings to declare Hammad Azhar, Fawad Chaudhry, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Murad Saeed, Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife Musarrat Iqbal Cheema and other leaders and workers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) proclaimed offenders (POs) for not surrendering in the May 9 riots related cases.
Naseerabad police filed an application before the court to declare 15 suspects including former federal ministers Hammad Azhar and Fawad Chaudhry, former provincial minister Mian Aslam Iqbal, Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife Musarrat Iqbal Cheema proclaimed offenders (POs) in three cases of torching a container at Kalma Chowk and party offices of PML-N in Model Town.
The Investigating Officer (IO) stated that the suspects went into hiding and deliberately failed to join the investigation of the cases against them. He said non-bailable arrest warrants had already been issued against the suspects. He asked the court to start the proceedings under section 87 of Cr.P.C to declare the suspects POs for not surrendering to the law.
The investigating officer of Sarwar Road police also filed a similar application requesting the court to initiate the proceedings to declare 54 suspects POs in case of attack on Corps Commander House Lahore.
The suspects also include women namely Kanwal Mahmood, Nosheen Hammad, Hajra Niazi, Anam Shaukat, Afsana Yasmin, Deeba Farhat and Sakina Saeed.
The court allowed both applications and ordered the prosecution to start the proceedings to declare the suspects POs in the cases.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023