Lahore High Court seeks reports on extended detention of Imran Khan’s sisters and Noreen Niazi’s health
The Lahore High Court on Monday sought reports from the Punjab Home Department and jail authorities on the extended detention of PTI founder Imran Khan’s sisters Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi, and on Noreen’s illness, with the reports due by 2pm today.
The Lahore High Court on Monday sought reports from the Punjab Home Department and jail authorities on the continued detention of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan’s sisters, and on the health of one of them, Noreen Niazi, who has been shifted to hospital while in custody.
Justice Abher Gul Khan issued the directions while hearing petitions filed by Noreen’s daughter, Sakeena Niazi, and by Shahrez Khan, the son of Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan, challenging the extension of the three women’s detention and seeking medical treatment and family access for Noreen. The court directed that the reports be submitted by 2pm on Monday, and adjourned further proceedings until then.
The three sisters — Aleema Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi — were detained in September under Section 3 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, as the PTI prepared for a planned protest march towards Islamabad. Aleema was detained on September 20, while Uzma and Noreen were taken into custody the following day. Their initial detention orders were for 30 days.
After that first period expired, the Punjab government informed the court that the detentions had been extended for a further 30 days, through a notification issued by the deputy commissioner on October 7. The petitioners’ counsel, Rana Mudassar Umar, argued before the court that the extension was unlawful, contending that the fresh detention orders were virtual replicas of the earlier ones, with only the dates changed.
The health of Noreen Niazi has become a central part of the case. Her counsel told the court that she was seriously ill and had been admitted to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore after her condition deteriorated in Kot Lakhpat Jail, on the recommendation of the jail’s doctors. He also filed an application seeking the court’s intervention over her medical condition and over permission for family members to meet the detained women.
Justice Khan directed the home secretary to submit a report on the extension of the detentions, and sought a separate report from the jail authorities on Noreen’s health. He also directed Inspector General of Prisons Mian Salik Jalal to report on permission for the detained sisters to meet their families.
The hearing follows an earlier direction from the same court on Friday, when it asked Noreen’s lawyer to file a separate application seeking medical treatment and family visits for his client, after first asking whether the authorities had been formally approached for those facilities. The counsel said an application had already been submitted to the deputy commissioner.
The case has also drawn comment in Parliament. The prime minister’s adviser on political affairs, Rana Sanaullah, had earlier informed the Senate that Noreen was fine after receiving medical treatment in Lahore, according to Dawn’s reporting — an account the family’s legal team has continued to dispute as it presses for access to her medical records and for family meetings.
The court had previously declined to suspend the detention notifications immediately, observing that reports would first be sought from the respondents before any decision on suspension. Monday’s hearing therefore marks the next step in that process, with the judge indicating he will examine the matter once the reports are before him.
What happens at 2pm could shape the next phase of the case. If the reports satisfy the court, the petitions will proceed to arguments on the legality of the extension; if they do not, the court could press the government further or take up the request to suspend the notifications. For the families, the most immediate questions remain medical — Noreen’s condition and treatment — and whether they will be allowed to meet the three women, who have now spent more than six weeks in preventive detention.
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