Two more sisters of the former Pakistan prime minister and founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, have been detained for 30 days. Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi were detained on Monday (September 21), ahead of PTI’s programme of nationwide protests and a march on Islamabad planned for September 27.
A day earlier the deputy commissioner of Lahore had ordered the detention or arrest of another of Imran’s sisters, Aleema Khan, for 30 days.
According to a report in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, an order of September 20 directed that Uzma and Noreen be held for 30 days under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960. The order said they were “harmful to public safety and public order”.
Under the order they are to be held under the superintendent of Kot Lakhpat central jail in Lahore.
The order from the Lahore deputy commissioner’s office alleges that Uzma and Noreen were involved in the protests of May 9, 2023 and encouraged activists to damage government and public property. It also alleges that they are again trying to organise activists through social media and public meetings and to worsen the law and order situation.
The order states that they face several cases over the episode, including case number 96/23 at Race Course police station.
The decision to detain Uzma and Noreen was taken at a meeting chaired by the Lahore deputy commissioner, Muhammad Ali Ijaz, on Sunday. The order says members of the meeting approved the evidence presented by the police.
PTI’s central information secretary, Sheikh Waqas Akram, alleged on the social media platform X early on Monday that Imran’s two sisters had been detained along with their children and Aleema Khan’s sons and taken to an unknown place in an armoured vehicle.