Hammad Azhar sent on judicial remand in Jinnah House attack case

LAHORE – An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday turned down a police plea for more physical remand of PTI leader Hammad Azhar in the Jinnah House attack case, and ordered him held in jail on judicial remand.

Sarwar Road police had registered a case against several PTI leaders and workers for attacking and vandalising Jinnah House during the May 9, 2023 protests that followed the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan.

Azhar’s family says he was picked up on Sept 5, but police said the following day that they had no knowledge of any arrest. He was presented before an ATC on Sept 7. The initial 21-day physical remand was later extended at least twice.

After the most recent 12-day remand expired, Azhar was brought before ATC Judge Sardar Muhammad Akram Khan on Tuesday.

The investigating officer asked for additional physical remand of the former finance minister so that a polygraph, or lie detector, test could be carried out.

Azhar’s lawyer, Barrister Abuzar Salman Niazi, countered that such a test cannot be done without the suspect’s consent. Citing a Lahore High Court ruling, he said the procedure must take place during judicial remand, and that the suspect must also tell a magistrate whether he agrees to it.

Azhar himself told the court that, if the law permitted him to decline, he did not wish to take the test. He argued that a suspect should not be made to suffer because the prosecution was allegedly unaware of the legal requirements.

After hearing both sides on the proposed test, Judge Akram rejected the police request and remanded Azhar to jail on judicial custody.

Welcoming the decision in a post on X, Barrister Niazi wrote that his client’s “50-day physical remand finally ends”, adding that Azhar had been sent to Kot Lakhpat jail.

Azhar held several federal portfolios during the PTI government, including finance, industries and energy.

After the May 2023 unrest, when the state moved against the party’s leadership, he went into hiding and resurfaced publicly a year later, on May 22, 2024.

In 2025, he repeated his decision to step down as president of the PTI’s Punjab chapter, citing lack of access to Imran Khan.