LHC asks for separate plea on Noreen Niazi's treatment and family meetings

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday told the lawyer for Noreen Niazi, a sister of PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan, to file a separate application seeking medical treatment and meetings with her family, Dawn reported. The direction came as the court heard a petition against the extension of the preventive detention of Noreen and her sister Dr Uzma Khan.

What happened in court

Justice Abher Gul Khan heard the petition, which was filed by Sakeena Niazi. Noreen was moved to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) on Wednesday evening because her health had deteriorated, on the advice of doctors at Kot Lakhpat jail, where she is held. The judge asked the petitioner’s counsel, Advocate Rana Mudassar Umar, whether an application for treatment and family meetings had been filed. Umar said one had been given to the deputy commissioner. The judge then directed him to file a separate civil miscellaneous application in court as well.

Umar told the court there was no lawful justification for extending the detention. He said Noreen, 70, had never had a heart ailment before, and asked what kind of pressure she had been put under in detention that she had to be taken to hospital. He argued that the new detention orders were replicas of the old ones with only the dates altered, and that suspending the detention notification would lead to the sisters’ release.

PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, who was in court, said Noreen was ill and had been placed in the hospital’s intensive care unit. He said neither her family members nor her lawyer had been allowed to see her, and that he did not know whether she was still in hospital or had been moved back to jail. These are the claims of the petitioners and the PTI; the reports we drew on do not carry a statement from the hospital or the jail administration on her condition.

When the court asked whether the home secretary, who was abroad, had returned, Additional Advocate General Nasir Chohan said he would find out and tell the court.

The detentions so far

Imran Khan’s sisters were detained in September under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance as the PTI prepared a protest march towards Islamabad. The orders were for 30 days and would have expired on October 19 for Aleema Khan and October 20 for Uzma and Noreen. They stayed in jail, however, and the government later told the LHC that the detentions had been extended on October 7. On September 24 the LHC had declined a request to suspend the original notifications at once.

A separate petition filed by Shahrez Khan against the detention of his mother, Aleema Khan, has not yet been fixed for hearing. Our report on Aleema Khan’s son’s petition on the sisters’ detention covers the earlier stage of the case. Earlier this month Imran’s cousin, Qasim Zaman, was also taken into custody when he went to Adiala jail to meet the former prime minister. The detentions came amid reports of a crackdown on the PTI ahead of its march, which the party called to demand Imran’s release from jail and mobilise people for the “supremacy of the Constitution”.

Why it matters

The issue before the court is limited for now: whether the detention can stand, and whether a detainee who has been taken to hospital can get treatment under supervision and see her family. The direction to file a separate application is a procedural step, but it matters because it creates a record that the court must respond to. The government’s side on the detention has so far been given only briefly in court, and the question of how the orders were extended remains for the bench to decide. The things to watch are the next hearing date, whether the home secretary appears, and whether Noreen’s family is allowed to see her.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn.