Pakistan’s police have detained two more sisters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, hours after arresting their sibling Aleema Khan from her residence in Lahore under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law.
Khan’s family and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party confirmed early on Monday that Uzma Khan and Noureen Niazi were also taken into custody along with several other family members, hours after holding a news conference to address Aleema’s arrest on Sunday.
“Punjab Police have arrested both sisters of Imran Khan, along with their children and the sons of Aleema Khan,” PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram posted on X, adding they were taken to an unknown place in an armoured vehicle.
Khan’s son Kasim condemned the detentions, stating that authorities broke into his relatives’ homes and forced them into vehicles without explanation or stated reasons for arrest.
“This is criminal behaviour. Inexcusable,” he wrote on X on Sunday.
The detentions come a week before a planned PTI protest march on September 27 to demand his release.
Aleema Khan was taken into custody on Sunday after the deputy commissioner of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, issued a 30-day preventive detention order under MPO, which allows authorities to detain individuals for public safety. The other sisters were also detained under the same law.
Aleema’s lawyer, Rana Mudassar Umer, said the detentions have been challenged in the Lahore High Court.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi warned the PTI against proceeding with its 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 referred to a court order from last week stating that political parties have no right to occupy public roads, appealing to PTI to adopt a different approach.
PTI leaders denounced the arrests. Akram said Aleema Khan was 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 jailed since August 2023 following a series of convictions his party calls politically motivated. All but one have since been suspended or overturned on appeal.
Concerns over his health, in particular the condition of his right eye, which has required months of specialist treatment, have driven the PTI campaign to demand his release.
Kasim and his brother Sulaiman Khan told Al Jazeera recently that they are increasingly worried after hearing that their father is “agitated” and suffering from “severe anxiety”.
Last month, the country’s Supreme Court ordered Pakistani authorities to transfer the former prime minister to the privately-run Shifa International Hospital in the capital, Islamabad.
Under the order, Khan was to remain there in medical care until the case was next heard, according to his lawyer.
Officials instead took him to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for a brief check-up before returning him to jail and did not give him access to his personal physician, which his party says was a breach of the top court’s orders.
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