Hend, 43, carded a one-over-par 73 to finish on nine under after the third round at Wentworth.
Hatton, 24, birdied five of his last eight holes to shoot a six-under 66.
England's Lee Westwood (68) and YE Yang (75) are tied for third on seven under, while Masters champion Danny Willett (76) is a shot further back.
Hend complained after his round about the behaviour of some spectators towards him over the closing holes, as he played in the final match with Willett.
The Australian said: "Danny was getting all the crowd support and I had no problem with that. But there were a couple of guys out there who were really over the top and it wasn't very nice what they were saying.
"It was quite rude and personal and if it was up to me I would have had them thrown out.
"Danny and I are mates. I've played with him before and he wants me to do well and I want him to do well. But when you get hecklers in the crowd saying pretty rude things as they were, I was ready to punch them."
Willett again struggled on the back nine. Having coming home in 39 after a tournament record first-nine of 29 in his second round, Willett took 41 strokes on Saturday.
The 28-year-old Englishman said: "It's disappointing to be somewhere there or thereabouts and then to play poorly on the back nine like we did yesterday.
"We had everything under control nicely and then a couple of loose shots, a couple of bad decisions, a couple of missed putts and very quickly it kind of slipped away."
Hatton, who has finished fifth, 13th and 12th in his last three events, set the clubhouse target more than two hours before the leaders finished after firing the day's lowest score.
He said: "I've been walking around this place since (I was) a five-year-old and I was in awe of the guys inside of the rope.
"For me now, playing my third BMW PGA, it's great. I love this event."
England's Westwood is playing the event for a 23rd year in a row and is targeting a first win after a second-place finish in 2000 and losing a play-off to Luke Donald in 2011.
Westwood, who finished second to Willett at the Masters in April, maintained his ever-present run after taking painkillers to help overcome a foot ligament injury sustained while running on Tuesday.
He said: "For a pro to win the PGA at any stage in their career is special. But to do it at 43 years old, in my 23rd appearance and having been in contention a lot before, would be great.
"I've played well here in the past and having finished second in the Masters and 10th in the Irish Open, I was surprised to be 33-1 going into this week.
"I haven't played a lot at the start of the year, so I'm pretty fresh coming into this part of the season. Normally I would have played 15 events and I've only played six. I'm looking forward to a run of golf now."
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Australia's Scott Hend eagled the 18th hole for the second successive day to take a one-shot lead over England's Tyrrell Hatton at the PGA Championship.