LAHORE  -   An an­ti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday started the process of declaring Pakistan Teh­reek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Hammad Azhar and three oth­ers as proclaimed offenders (POs) in a case of torching po­lice vehicles. The court direct­ed the prosecution to publish a proclamation in newspapers for appearance of Hammad Azhar, Sarmad Malik, Ghu­lam Abbas and Ali Abbas. ATC Judge Ijaz Ajmad Buttar ini­tiated the process under Sec­tion 87 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on an appli­cation, filed by the police. The investigation officer of Sarwar Road Police Station had filed the application with a plea to start the process of declaring the accused as proclaimed of­fenders for not joining the in­vestigation and judicial pro­ceedings. He submitted that the accused had not surren­dered before the court despite issuance of their non-bailable arrest warrants. The Sarwar Road police had registered a case against the PTI leaders and workers over torching po­lice vehicles at Rahat Bakery chowk. It is pertinent to men­tion here that the court had also initiated process to de­clare Hammad Azhar as pro­claimed offender in two oth­er cases, including the Jinnah House attack case.