LAHORE: Incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan’s sister Noreen Niazi was moved from Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology on Wednesday due to high blood pressure, her lawyer said.
Three sisters of the ex-premier — Noreen, Aleema Khan, and Uzma Khan — have been detained since Sept 21 under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960 (MPO) on the Lahore deputy commissioner’s (DC) orders. They are currently serving the second term of a 30-day detention under the MPO, which was extended on Oct 7.
Noreen’s counsel Rana Mudassar Umer told Dawn that she had been taken to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology on the recommendation of the jail doctors.
She was brought to the hospital at around 7:30pm and hospital sources said doctors were performing her tests, he added.
No family member has been informed about her deteriorating health condition, the lawyer claimed.
Umer further alleged that the jail authorities were consistently denying medicines to Imran’s sisters. He said Uzma, who was a heart patient, had also been denied medicines, adding that they were eventually delivered to her upon the Lahore High Court (LHC)’s order after her husband approached the court.
When contacted, a senior jail officer refuted the accusations, telling Dawn that medicines and daily-use items were allowed to be provided to the inmates and that the three sisters were getting all such items.
Noreen’s lawyer further said that no family members or counsel had been allowed to meet the sisters. Umer said he had filed multiple petitions before the Punjab home secretary and the Lahore DC seeking meetings of the detained sisters with their family and lawyers, but the DC had not responded.
Regarding the meetings, the jail officer said this was the jurisdiction of the Lahore DC, and jail authorities could allow such meetings on a by-name written order issued by the DC.
Imran’s sisters were detained by authorities in September, under Section 3 of the MPO, as the PTI geared up for a planned protest march towards Islamabad.
Their detention was ordered for 30 days and would have expired on Oct 19 for Aleema and Oct 20 for Uzma and Noreen, according to Umer. However, they remained in jail, and the government later informed the LHC that their detentions had been extended on Oct 7.
On Sept 24, the LHC had turned down a request to immediately suspend the preventive detention notifications issued against Noreen and Dr Uzma.
Earlier this month, Imran’s cousin, Qasim Zaman, was also taken into custody when he went to Adiala jail to meet the ex-prime minister.
The detention had come amid reports of a crackdown on the PTI ahead of its countrywide protest and march to Islamabad, which the party had called to demand Imran’s release from jail and mobilise people for the supremacy of the Constitution.
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