• Police seek 60-day custody of ex-minister, photogrammetric analysis, social media forensics
• Defence challenges evidence, says no grounds exist for detention
• PTI slams ‘political vengeance’, demands immediate release

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday granted police 21 days’ physical remand of PTI leader and former finance minister Hammad Azhar in a case pertaining to the attack on Jinnah House during the May 9 riots.

Sarwar Road police presented Mr Azhar before the court under tight security, with a large police contingent deployed around the premises.

ATC Judge Sardar Muhammad Akram presided over the hearing.

The investigating officer sought 60 days’ physical remand, saying the suspect had long been wanted in the case and arrested only recently.

He said the remand was needed to interrogate and investigate his alleged involvement in the matter. The officer also sought permission to conduct a photogrammetric analysis and a forensic examination of Azhar’s social media accounts.

The defence counsel, Barrister Abuzar Salman Niazi, countered that although police claimed his client had been in hiding for three years, no evidence had been collected against him during these years. He argued the investigating officer had failed to do his job for three years and that there was no material on record to justify the physical remand.

He said Mr Azhar had not been put through an identification parade and was brought to court with his face covered by police. He alleged the PTI leader was not being treated appropriately.

Barrister Niazi also argued his client had been implicated based on a co-suspect’s statement, noting that Dr Yasmin Rashid had been named on the same statement but had her case dismissed at the first hearing. He asked the court to discharge Mr Azhar on the same grounds.

After hearing both sides, the judge granted police 21 days’ physical remand. He directed police to treat the suspect appropriately, observing that people should be treated in a manner that “would not cause embarrassment when they [police] had to face them later.”

Earlier on Monday, Mr Azhar’s mother, Ishrat Azhar, filed a habeas corpus petition in the Lahore High Court, alleging her son had been arrested on Saturday.

The petition said the family had no information about Azhar’s whereabouts. It sought his appearance before a competent court, disclosure of the lawful basis for his detention, access to counsel and reasonable communication with his family.

PTI slams remand

Meanwhile, the PTI condemned the court’s decision, with the party’s Central Information Secretary, Sheikh Waqas Akram, describing the remand and proposed tests as “malicious” tactics to prolong “state persecution”.

“The government must realise that this dark policy of political vengeance and brutal repression completely backfired over the past four years, and it will never succeed in the future either,” Akram said.

“Pakistan’s current economic, political and social turmoil is in a tailspin; the country simply cannot afford the continuation of such policies. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Hammad Azhar and all political prisoners languishing in jails.”

Mr Akram also criticised the Sindh government for detaining over 150 PTI workers before the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister arrived in Karachi, alleging custodial torture that included a worker’s fractured arm.

He slammed PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for using state machinery to crush peaceful workers.

“Bilawal Bhutto must wake up to the bitter reality that Sindh belongs to Imran Khan and the people, while all his political cronies are mere remnants of the past who have been completely rejected,” Mr Akram said.

He demanded accountability for the police officials involved in the alleged violence and called for the immediate restoration of all constitutional rights for Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi.

Hammad Azhar, the son of late former Punjab governor Mian Muhammad Azhar, was declared a proclaimed offender by multiple anti-terrorism courts for not joining the proceedings against him in cases related to the May 9 riots.

Ikram Junaidi in Islamabad also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2026