LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — An anti-terrorism court in Lahore on Tuesday refused police a further extension of PTI leader Hammad Azhar’s physical remand in the May 9 Jinnah House attack case and sent the former finance minister to jail on judicial remand, ending what his lawyer called a 50-day stint in police custody.
The investigating officer had asked for more time to put Azhar through a polygraph test, Dawn reported. His counsel, Barrister Abuzar Salman Niazi, argued that a lie-detector test needs the suspect’s consent and, under a Lahore High Court ruling, can only be done during judicial remand after the suspect states before a magistrate whether he agrees. Azhar told the court he did not wish to take the test if the law let him refuse, and that a suspect should not be punished for the prosecution’s ignorance of the law.
Judge Sardar Muhammad Akram Khan dismissed the police request and sent Azhar to Kot Lakhpat jail. “50-day physical remand finally ends,” Niazi wrote on X.
Arrest the police said they knew nothing about
Azhar’s family says he was arrested on September 5; police said the next day they were unaware of any arrest, and he was produced before the anti-terrorism court on September 7. His initial 21-day physical remand was extended at least twice, most recently for 12 days. Sarwar Road police booked several PTI leaders and workers over the attack on Jinnah House, the Lahore corps commander’s residence, during the protests that followed Imran Khan’s arrest on May 9, 2023.
Azhar held the finance, industries and energy portfolios in the PTI government. He went into hiding during the crackdown that followed the riots and resurfaced on May 22, 2024. In 2025 he repeated his decision to step down as president of the party’s Punjab chapter, citing a lack of access to Imran Khan.
