KARACHI, March 3: A judicial magistrate issued on Saturday warrants for arrest of seven policemen for not appearing in court to testify in three cases.

Azhar Ali and Ayub Umar have been charged with keeping unlicensed weapons in 2011 within the remit of the Clifton and the Defence police stations, respectively. They were booked under Section 13-D of the Arms Ordinance.

Sub-Inspector Ghulam Murtaza, ASI Mohammad Maroof and Constables Essa and Karim were prosecution witnesses in those cases.

However, despite repeated summons issued by the court, they did not turn up in court.

Similarly, ASI Mohammad Arshad and Constables Khalid Ali and Sikandar also failed to make an appearance before the court to record their statements in another case registered against Asghar Ali at the Baghdadi police station under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act.

A judicial magistrate (south) issued the non-bailable warrants for the policemen through the SSP concerned with a direction to arrest them and produce them in court on next hearings.