LAHORE — The Lahore High Court has sought reports on the continued detention of three sisters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, according to reporting by The Express Tribune.
Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi have been held since September under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960. Justice Abher Gul Khan sought reports on the extensions to their detention orders, on Noreen Niazi’s health, and on whether the family has been allowed access to the women. The Inspector General of Prisons, Mian Salik Jalal, was among the officials directed to respond, according to the reporting.
Noreen Niazi, 70, was admitted to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore last week after her health deteriorated in custody, her lawyer Rana Mudassar Umer said. On Friday, the court directed her counsel to file a separate application seeking medical treatment and family visits, and it sought clarification on whether the family had formally asked the authorities for those facilities.
The three women were detained ahead of a planned PTI protest march on Islamabad to demand Imran Khan’s release. Aleema Khan was detained on September 20 in Lahore and taken to Kot Lakhpat jail, and Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi were detained a day later, following a recommendation from the police, according to court reporting. The first orders ran for 30 days and were due to expire on October 19 and 20.
The Punjab government later told the court that the detention had been extended. A government lawyer said the extension was approved on October 7 and later told the court it had been extended by another 30 days, after the Lahore deputy commissioner sent a proposal recommending a further extension. Aleema Khan’s son Shahrez Khan filed a petition on October 20 challenging the detention and asking the court to order the women’s release and production before the court.
The Maintenance of Public Order law allows preventive detention. It does not require a criminal charge, and no trial follows from the detention order itself. PTI secretary general Salman Akram Raja has criticised the continued detention and questioned the justification for keeping Noreen Niazi in custody despite her illness. PTI has also alleged the arrests took place before the formal detention notifications were issued; the government has not published the stated grounds for the extensions in the reporting reviewed for this story.
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, has been in jail for more than three years and remains PTI’s central figure, even as his party’s provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was suspended under emergency rule last month. What happens next in this case depends on the reports the court has now called for. No date for the reports’ return before the bench was published in the reporting, and the court has not ordered the women’s release.
