LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants of eight leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for their failure to join the proceedings against them in a May 9 riots case.

The suspects include former federal ministers Murad Saeed, Azam Swati and Farrukh Habib, Zubair Khan Niazi, Hafiz Farhat, Wasiq Qayum Abbasi, Hamid Raza and Imtiaz Ahmad Sheikh.

PTI leaders including Hammad Azhar, Murad Saeed, Azam Swati, Ali Amin Gandapur, Farrukh Habib, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Andleeb Abbas, Karamat Khokhar and Zubair Niazi have already been declared POs in multiple cases of May 9 for surrendering to the law.

Sarwar Road police registered the case against the PTI leaders on charges of burning police vehicles near Rahat Bakery chowk during the May 9 protests. Earlier, the investigating officer (IO) told the court that despite hectic efforts the suspects could not be arrested as they went into hides for fear of arrest. The IO asked the court to issue non-bailable arrest warrants of suspects to fulfill a requirement before starting the process to declare them proclaimed offenders (POs).

The court allowed the plea and issued non-bailable arrest warrants of the PTI leaders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023