Sisters jailed for 30 days
Three sisters of Pakistan's imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan have been arrested and jailed for 30 days under a warrant accusing them of threatening public order, their lawyer said on Monday. Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi were detained as the government moves aggressively to block a nationwide protest planned for Sunday to demand Khan's release. The sisters hold political positions within Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and have been prominent advocates for his freedom since he was imprisoned on corruption charges in 2023.[S1]
According to the family's lawyer, Rana Mudassir Umar, Aleema was taken into custody in Lahore on Sunday as she headed to a private club, and her driver was detained as well. Uzma and Noreen were picked up at roughly 3am on Monday, shortly after giving a press conference at Aleema's Lahore residence to denounce her arrest. Umar stated that hundreds of officers encircled the family home, with over 100 going inside to detain the two sisters together with their children, grandchildren aged four and six, and domestic workers. The property was raided and every phone confiscated. By 7am the children and grandchildren had been freed, yet the three sisters stayed in detention under the Maintenance of Public Order law.[S1]
Crackdown before long march
These arrests amount to a sharp escalation of a crackdown targeting PTI members and backers before the nationwide demonstration, called a long march, set for Sunday. The protest is meant to press for Khan's freedom and to condemn what organisers describe as a dismantling of democracy and the constitution by the ruling coalition. PTI leaders denounced the illegal harassment of Khan's sisters. Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Monday that the government would devise a permanent solution to stop the march from proceeding and from paralysing large parts of the country once and for all.[S1]
Across the weekend, Islamabad became a heavily fortified city, with barricades, armed officers stationed along roads, and shipping containers sealing off entrances. Sheikh Waqas Akram, a senior PTI figure, said the government dreaded that hundreds of thousands could join the long march and bring it down, much as protest movements recently did in neighbouring Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. He accused Punjab police of storming homes, intimidating families, demolishing houses, and detaining workers and relatives, claiming they were resorting to extreme measures to crush the march through violence and arrests.[S1]
Khan's detention and political context
Khan's relatives and party claim he is held in solitary confinement and has gone six months without family visits or calls, and that he has allegedly been blocked from receiving essential medical care for an eye condition. His two sons, who live in London and campaign for his freedom, told the Guardian last week that army chief Field Marshall Asim Munir was waging a personal vendetta against their father and that Pakistani authorities were slowly killing Khan behind bars. Although Pakistan is nominally governed by a civilian coalition, the army is widely seen as the country's dominant establishment. The present government took office through a 2024 election widely documented as rigged, allegedly via military intervention, to keep Khan's party from regaining power.[S1]
Even after his long imprisonment, Khan remains seen as Pakistan's most popular politician, and officials worry that large crowds could join Sunday's march. Anger is widespread amid an economic crisis and severe petrol shortages caused by turmoil in the Middle East and the Gulf, and outrage over Khan's alleged mistreatment is common. Khan's party has endured relentless harassment for three years, with most senior PTI figures either jailed or pressured to quit politics. The sisters have been named in multiple court cases since protesting their brother's detention, including by camping outside the prison holding him, and this marks the first time all three have been jailed.[S1]
