Lahore High Court orders jail meeting for Noreen Niazi and her daughters, summons Lahore DC over detention extensions
The Lahore High Court has ordered jail authorities to arrange a one-hour meeting between detained PTI founder Imran Khan’s sister Noreen Niazi and her two daughters, and summoned the Lahore deputy commissioner in person on 4 November to explain the extension of detention orders.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ordered jail authorities to arrange a one-hour meeting between Noreen Niazi, the sister of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, and her two daughters at the jail at 10am on Tuesday, while summoning the Lahore deputy commissioner (DC) in person to explain the extension of detention orders against Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khanum. Justice Abher Gul Khan issued the directions on Monday while hearing petitions challenging the extensions in the detention of Imran Khan’s three sisters.
The petitions were filed by Sakina Niazi, Noreen’s daughter, and Shahraiz, the son of Aleema Khanum, and sought permission for the detained sisters to meet their family members as well as a challenge to the detention extensions. The court directed the petitioners’ counsel to submit an application to the Lahore DC seeking permission for the meeting, and ordered the deputy commissioner to ensure that the daughters were allowed to meet their mother at the jail for one hour.
The court also summoned the DC Lahore in person on 4 November in connection with the extension of detention orders against Noreen and Uzma, and directed the Punjab Home Department to submit its reports by 2pm on Tuesday. The hearing on the challenge to the extension of Aleema Khanum’s detention was adjourned until next week, while proceedings on the other petitions were adjourned to Tuesday afternoon.
The three sisters were detained in September under Section 3 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960, as the PTI prepared for a planned protest march towards Islamabad. Aleema Khanum was detained on 20 September, while Uzma Khanum and Noreen Niazi were taken into custody on 21 September. Their initial detention orders were issued for 30 days, and after that period lapsed last month, the families challenged the detentions in court — whereupon the Punjab government informed the court that the orders had been extended for another 30 days, through a notification issued on 7 October.
Noreen Niazi’s health has been a central concern in the proceedings. She was shifted from Kot Lakhpat Jail to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) in Lahore after her condition deteriorated, on the recommendation of prison doctors, and was subsequently moved back to jail on doctors’ advice after treatment. The Punjab government’s counsel told the court that her daughter Hajra Niazi had already been allowed to meet her mother on 29 October during her hospital treatment, while the petitioners argued that family access remained inadequate.
The court’s directions address two separate questions at once: the immediate humanitarian question of a mother meeting her daughters, and the legal question of whether the extended detentions are justified. By summoning the DC in person and demanding the Home Department’s reports, the court has signalled that it wants a direct explanation for the extensions rather than a written assurance alone.
The case sits within a wider set of legal battles around the PTI founder and his family. Imran Khan has been in jail since August 2023, and on Monday his lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, met him and his wife Bushra Bibi at Adiala Jail for the first time in seven months — a 40-minute meeting that the counsel said was far too short to cover their many cases. The Islamabad High Court had directed in September that jail authorities end the couple’s isolation and provide the facilities set out in the prison rules.
What happens next turns on the hearings ahead. The Lahore DC’s appearance on Wednesday, the Home Department’s reports, and the compliance report on Tuesday’s mother-daughters meeting will test whether the court is satisfied with the state’s justification for keeping the sisters detained. For the families, the immediate question is simpler: whether the meeting ordered for Tuesday morning actually takes place, and whether such access becomes regular rather than exceptional.
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