Imran Khan's sisters still in jail after detention order expires, LHC told

The son of Aleema Khan, one of jailed PTI founder Imran Khan’s sisters, has asked the Lahore High Court (LHC) to order the release of his mother and two aunts, saying their 30-day detention period has run out but they are still being held, Dawn reported.

All three sisters, Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan, were detained in September under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960, as the PTI prepared for a protest march towards Islamabad. Their detention was ordered for 30 days.

Update: LHC summons home secretary and jail chief

On Thursday, the Lahore High Court summoned the Punjab home secretary and the Kot Lakhpat jail superintendent to appear in person with their reports, Dawn reported. The petitioner’s lawyer told the court the detention orders expired on October 19 and 20, but the sisters had not been released.

Justice Abher Gul Khan asked why the Lahore deputy commissioner, who issued the detention notification, had not been made a respondent. The lawyer said the notification had already expired. Uzma Khan’s husband, Ahad Khan, asked the court to summon the deputy commissioner, but the judge said he could not be summoned because he was not a party to the case. The hearing was adjourned to October 28.

Orders expired, sisters still held

Shahrez Khan filed the fresh petition on Wednesday through Advocate Rana Mudassar Umar. It says the detention orders were issued on September 20 and expired on October 19, but the sisters remain in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, and the jail authorities have not released them despite requests.

“Therefore, detention of the detenues is against the law and fundamental rights of the individuals,” the petition says.

The Punjab home secretary, acting as grievance redressal commissioner, the inspector general of police, the Lahore capital city police officer and the Kot Lakhpat jail superintendent are named as respondents.

The legal argument

The petition says the three sisters are not wanted in any case. It raises concerns that they could be implicated in “false criminal cases” if they are not freed.

It argues that their detention was a consequence of their efforts to secure their brother’s release. It also contends that preventive detention cannot be used in place of ordinary criminal law, and that the orders violated Article 10 of the Constitution, which protects people against arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as the safeguards in Section 3 of the MPO.

The petitioner has asked the court to:

• Direct the jail superintendent to produce the three women in court and “set them at liberty, in the interest of justice, equity and fair play”.
• Declare the detention orders void.
• Order their release and suspend the operation of the orders while the case is heard.

Justice Abher Gul Khan is due to hear the petition on Thursday.

Detained before the march

The sisters were held as the PTI geared up for its march on Islamabad, which began on October 4. The government later imposed an emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 11, after talks between the government and the opposition failed.

Last week, a joint session of parliament adopted resolutions ratifying the proclamations of emergency and governor’s rule, The Express Tribune reported. Other PTI figures are also being held. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s non-functional chief minister, Sohail Afridi, was in “protective custody”, and that an advisory council would decide whether he should be arrested or charged.

Tarar defended such custody as a natural step after an emergency, to prevent possible sabotage or threats to law and order. The sisters’ petition argues the opposite for their case: that preventive detention cannot stand in for the ordinary criminal process.

In December 2025, Aleema Khan sat in front of a police barricade in Rawalpindi in a protest that the PTI shared on X, Dawn noted.