Former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan’s sisters, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi, were detained for 30 days on Monday, ahead of the party’s September 27 protest call.
The development follows the detention of Imran’s other sister, Aleema Khan, after Lahore’s deputy commissioner (DC) ordered her detention or arrest for 30 days on Sunday.
The detention has come amid reports of a crackdown on the PTI ahead of its September 27 countrywide protest and march to Islamabad, which the party has called to demand Imran’s release from jail and mobilise people for the supremacy of the Constitution.
In an order dated Sept 20, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the Lahore DC Office ordered that Noreen and Uzma be detained for 30 days under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, stating that the two were “prejudicial to the public safety and maintenance of public order”.
The MPO ordinance allows the authorities to order detention and restrict judicial review of such orders.
The two will remain in custody under the superintendent, Central Jail, Kot Lakhpat, it said.
The order stated that the two were involved in the May 9 protest and “motivated the workers to damage public and government property”.
“Moreover, they are again mobilising the workers through social media and public meetings to create a law and order situation, raising/chanting objectionable slogans amongst the general public against the government/institution in order to provoke and incite them,” the order read.
“Accordingly, multiple cases including 96/23 PS Race Course were registered,” it said, stating that Uzma and Noreen were “potential dangers to public peace and tranquillity”.
“Such activists will give rise to a situation prejudicial to public safety and maintenance of public order, if left unchecked.”
The decision was taken in a meeting held on Sunday, under the chairmanship of the Lahore DC Muhammad Ali Ijaz, where the issue was discussed and members “endorsed” the “evidence” presented by the police.
The order stated that the Lahore DC was convinced that Uzma and Noreen’s presence “at any public place will pose a grave threat to the public safety and will likely cause breach of public peace and public order”.
In a post on X in the early hours of Monday, the party’s Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram had accused Punjab police of “arresting both sisters of Imran, along with their children and the sons of Aleema Khan”.
Akram claimed that the individuals had “been placed in an armoured vehicle and are being taken to an unknown location”.
PTI lawyer Awais Younas Chaudhry had confirmed to Dawn that all three of Imran’s sisters had been arrested.
“Earlier Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan were confined to their house, but on Monday morning they were taken to an unknown place,” he claimed.
PTI, in a post on X, condemned the alleged arrest, calling it a “blatant abuse of authority, a violation of fundamental rights, and an act of political victimisation”.
“Such conduct is illegal, unconstitutional, and is condemned in the strongest possible terms,” the party said.
Meanwhile, Imran’s son Kasim Khan, in a post on X, alleged that Uzma and Noreen had been “abducted”.
“This is a disgrace,” Kasim wrote, claiming that authorities had “broken into my aunties and cousins houses and forced them into vehicles with no explanation”.
“No reasons for arrest have been stated. No news has been released as to where they have been taken,” he wrote.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, in a post on X, condemned the detention and stressed that the country did not “need further confrontation, rather an end to political tensions”.
Gohar noted that the arrest of “PTI’s parliamentarians and their family members will only exacerbate tensions”.
“The state must immediately alter its course of action. We are merely seeking justice and raising our voices for it,” he wrote.
Speaking to Dawn, former member of the Punjab Assembly Seemabia Tahir said, “It was unfortunate that the family members [..] were facing such brutality”.
She expressed hope that following this, “people will surely come out of their houses on Sept 27”.
Aleema’s detention
On Sunday, Aleema was detained under similar orders.
The September 20 order, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said DC Ijaz had ordered the detention or arrest of Aleema and a man named Muhammad Ameer under the Punjab MPO.
Following the arrest, Aleema’s sister Noreen addressed a press conference in Lahore, flanked by her sister’s counsel, Advocate Mudassir Umar.
Noreen claimed Aleema was “picked up” along with her driver after she left her residence on Saturday, and they later learnt that Aleema’s vehicle was parked at a police station. Meanwhile, the lawyer said they had yet to receive official confirmation of her arrest.
Police sources had confirmed to Dawn on Sunday that Aleema was taken to Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.
After Uzma and Noreen were also detained, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja posted on X that in light of “fascist onslaught” in Punjab, particularly Lahore, an organising committee had been formed for the Lahore district to run the party’s matter “through consultation and agreement”.
He added that consultations would be held with parliamentarians in Punjab on Monday and Tuesday.
He also shared a statement notifying the constitution of the committee.
The statement said, ““The organising committee shall have complete authority to take all actions and devise and implement all plans for the better functioning of the affairs of the party in the Lahore district.”
Former lawmaker Malik Zaheer Abbas has been appointed as the committee’s convener and the body also compises Haroon Akbar, Asghar Gujjar, Awais Anjum, Yasir Gillani and Amir Qureshi.
Even more detentions
The detentions of Imran’s sisters come after a string of reported actions against the PTI in Punjab and Islamabad ahead of its September 27 protest.
PTI Chairman Gohar claims that around 1,500 party workers have been arrested so far.
“Five of our MNAs have been arrested, along with an ex-senator. Our MPAs have been arrested; one of them was arrested in Islamabad. Even our ministers are being arrested in our own province,” he alleged during a press conference in Peshawar.
Speaking alongside him, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi claimed that men in plain clothes had “attacked and abducted” KP Labour Minister Fazal Shakoor. He also mentioned the reported attempt to “kidnap” the provincial minister for communications, Shakeel Khan in Batkhela.
But, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said the allegations were “a complete lie”.
Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’, he questioned, “Who can abduct a provincial minister in a provincial capital, which they (the PTI) govern?”
In the rest of the press briefing, Afridi rued that his party had been subjected to “force, oppression and fascism” since April 9, 2022 — when Imran was ousted as the prime minister through a no-confidence vote.
He held the country’s rulers responsible for reported deaths during these actions against his party.
The KP CM reiterated that all three of Imran’s sisters and children as young as six years old had been “abducted”.
“Nonetheless, PTI is still the most popular political party of Pakistan and Imran Khan is the most popular leader,” he remarked.
CM Afridi reiterated that peaceful protest was the right of a political party, guaranteed under the Constitution and law, adding that the PTI had decided in its parliamentary party meeting earlier in the day to go ahead with its plan for a protest on Sept 27.
He further announced that the party would share a detailed plan for the planned long march on September 25.
For his part, Gohar said the “situation would improve if we seriously listen to each other, rather than threaten each other” and urged the state to “change its ways”.
He also expressed the resolve to go ahead with the planned march on Sept 27, assuring the the PTI would not take the law into its hands.
On Sunday, Sahiwal police arrested Asad Khan Baloch, former mayor of the municipal corporation and ex-ticket holder for PTI, along with the party’s city president in Sahiwal, Muhammad Shahid Chohan.
PTI also claimed that MNAs Sanaullah Mastikhel, Ahsan Jamal Khan and Mian Ghous were taken into custody, according to the party’s information secretary.
District authorities had also issued preventive detention orders against dozens of PTI workers under MPO a week ago, including 31 in one Punjab notification and a further 14 in Toba Tek Singh.
Similar reports have come from Islamabad, where the PTI plans to march on the protest day.
However, the government has vowed to stop the march, and the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ruled that no political party or its leadership has the “lawful right to occupy public roads, highways, interchanges, toll plazas and buildings in Islamabad”.
‘Flagrant violation of rights’
Condemning the reported detentions, the Amnesty International said in a statement that “the targeting of Imran Khan’s family and PTI party activists is a flagrant violation of their rights to liberty, freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly”.
“Such actions speak to the severity of the current restrictions in Pakistan,” it added.
Amnesty noted that the “pre-emptive arrests of PTI members come ahead of planned country-wide protests by the party on Sept 27, which government officials have openly vowed to stop”.
“Roadblocks are already being erected in Islamabad.”
These developments did not bid well, especially given the authorities’ “long track record of reckless and unlawful use of force against protesters,” the statement read.
“A protest cannot be deemed violent before it has even started. Pakistan’s authorities must uphold their obligations under international human rights law to facilitate peaceful assembly and refrain from unlawful measures to thwart these protests,” Amnesty urged.
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