May 9 cases: ATC initiates proceedings to declare PTI leaders fugitives

• ATC initiates proceedings to declare 8 PTI leaders as fugitives in Shadman arson case
• ATC initiated process of declaring 51 accused as fugitives in Jinnah House attack case.
• The IO said the accused have gone into hiding to evade arrest.

LAHORE: Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday started the process of declaring eight Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders as proclaimed offenders in the Shadman police station arson case.

The police station was reportedly attacked during violent protests on May 9 initiated after the arrest of the PTI chairman in which military installations and other public buildings were attacked.

The court started the proceedings against Farrukh Habib, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Jamshed Cheema, Musrat Cheema and Murad Saeed to declare them as fugitives. The court started action against Hamad Azhar, Hassan Niazi, and Zubair Niazi

The court accepted the request of the investigating officer who said that non-bailable arrest warrants have been issued for the accused. The investigating officer said the accused have deliberately gone into hiding to evade arrest and the court should declare them as proclaimed offenders.

The Anti-Terrorism Court also initiated the process of declaring 51 accused as proclaimed offenders in the Jinnah House attack case. ATC judge Abhar Gul Khan issued the decision on a request of the investigating officer who said the accused were deliberately hiding due to fear of arrest.

The officer said arrest warrants have also been issued for the accused. He said the court should declare the accused as fugitives. The accused includes Shahzeb, Aun Sadiq, Abrar, Syed Tauqeer and others.

A day earlier, an anti-terrorism court initiated proceedings to declare 15 PTI leaders as absconders in the matters of setting on fire the PML-N office in Lahore and a container at Kalma Chowk.

The court launched proceedings against PTI leaders including Hammad Azhar, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema, Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, Murad Saeed, and Fawad Chaudhry.

In this regard, the court also ordered to publish advertisements against the accused. The process of declaring the accused as an absconder has been started in three cases.

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 proclaimed offenders 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 Jinnah House in 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 as proclaimed offenders in the cases.

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