LAHORE: Two sisters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi, were released from Kot Lakhpat Jail on Thursday after the detention order holding them was withdrawn ahead of a court hearing on their challenge. A third sister, Aleema Khan, remains in prison under a separate order.
Their lawyer, Rana Mudassar Umer, said on X that both women had arrived home safely. They walked out of the jail at about 2 p.m. after spending 53 days in custody, according to the family. The lawyer told Reuters the detention orders had been suspended. Dawn and AFP reported that the authorities withdrew the joint order ahead of a scheduled court hearing on the sisters’ challenge to their detention.
The three sisters were detained in September under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, on the orders of the Lahore deputy commissioner, a week before a planned march on Islamabad by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party to demand his release. The government said the sisters could be a threat to law and order. The march did not go ahead. The detention was first ordered for 30 days and then extended for another 30, and the sisters challenged it in the Lahore High Court.
During the detention, Noreen Niazi was moved on October 28 from the jail to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology after suffering high blood pressure. Uzma Khan’s son, Wali Khan, has asked why his mother was held for 53 days and then released, saying the decisions were not based in law. Lawyers are also seeking the withdrawal of Aleema Khan’s detention order.
Imran Khan has been in prison since August 2023 in cases his party calls politically motivated.
