Pakistani police have detained two more sisters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, hours after arresting their sibling Aleema Khan from her Lahore residence under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law.
Khan’s family and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said early on Monday that Uzma Khan and Noureen Niazi were taken into custody along with several other family members, hours after they held a news conference over Aleema’s arrest on Sunday, reports Al Jazeera.
“Punjab Police have arrested both sisters of Imran Khan, along with their children and the sons of Aleema Khan,” PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram wrote on X, adding that they were taken to an undisclosed location in an armoured vehicle.
Khan’s son Kasim condemned the detentions, alleging that authorities broke into his relatives’ homes and forced them into vehicles without providing an explanation or grounds for their arrests.
“This is criminal behaviour. Inexcusable,” he wrote on X on Sunday.
The arrests came a week before a planned PTI protest march on 27 September demanding the former prime minister’s release.
Aleema was detained on Sunday after Lahore’s deputy commissioner issued a 30-day preventive detention order under the MPO, which allows authorities to detain individuals on public safety grounds. Khan’s other two sisters were also detained under the same law.
Aleema’s lawyer Rana Mudassar Umer said the detentions had been challenged in the Lahore High Court.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi warned PTI against going ahead with the planned march.
“They cannot achieve anything through such drama. I will say again today that there is still time. Don’t get into a situation from which there is no turning back,” Naqvi said.
He also cited a court order issued last week stating that political parties had no right to occupy public roads and urged PTI to adopt a different approach.
PTI leaders condemned the arrests. Akram said Aleema had been targeted “because she refused to stay silent about her brother’s illegal detention, solitary confinement, and denial of medical care”.
Concerns over Imran Khan’s health
Imran Khan, 73, has been in prison since August 2023 following a series of convictions that his party says are politically motivated. All but one have since been suspended or overturned on appeal.
Concerns over his health, particularly the condition of his right eye, which has required months of specialist treatment, have intensified PTI’s campaign for his release.
His sons Kasim and Sulaiman Khan recently said they had become increasingly concerned after hearing that their father was “agitated” and suffering from “severe anxiety”.
Last month, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered authorities to transfer Khan to the privately run Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad.
Under the order, Khan was to remain there for medical care until the case was next heard, according to his lawyer.
Authorities instead took him to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for a brief check-up before returning him to prison. He was also not given access to his personal physician, which PTI said amounted to a breach of the Supreme Court’s order.
