Two more sisters of PTI founder Imran Khan — Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi — were detained for 30 days in Lahore on Monday, just a day after their sister Aleema Khan was detained the same way. All three are now in custody ahead of PTI’s September 27 protest.
What the Official Order Says
The order, dated September 20, came from the Lahore Deputy Commissioner’s Office. It places Uzma and Noreen under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960, for 30 days, stating they are “prejudicial to the public safety and maintenance of public order.” The MPO law allows authorities to detain someone and limits how much a court can review that decision.
According to the order, both sisters were involved in the May 9 protests and “motivated the workers to damage public and government property.” It also claims they are now “mobilising the workers through social media and public meetings to create a law and order situation,” and accuses them of “raising/chanting objectionable slogans” meant to provoke people against the government. The order says several cases have been registered against them, including one at Race Course police station, and calls them “potential dangers to public peace and tranquillity.” Both sisters will be held at Kot Lakhpat Central Jail.
What PTI and the Family Are Saying
PTI’s account of events is very different from the official order. Party spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram wrote on X in the early hours of Monday that Punjab police had arrested “both sisters of Imran, along with their children and the sons of Aleema Khan,” claiming they were placed in an armoured vehicle and “taken to an unknown location.” PTI lawyer Awais Younas Chaudhry told Dawn that all three of Imran’s sisters have now been arrested, saying Noreen and Uzma had been confined to their house before being moved to an unknown place on Monday morning.
PTI issued a statement calling the arrests a “blatant abuse of authority, a violation of fundamental rights, and an act of political victimisation,” adding that the conduct was “illegal, unconstitutional” and condemning it “in the strongest possible terms.”
Imran Khan’s son, Kasim Khan, went further in his own post on X, alleging that Uzma and Noreen had been “abducted.” He wrote that authorities had “broken into my aunties and cousins houses and forced them into vehicles with no explanation,” adding that no reason for the arrest had been given and no information released about where they’d been taken.
What We Don’t Know
There’s a real gap between the two accounts here: the official government order names a specific legal basis (the MPO ordinance) and cites specific past cases, while the family and PTI describe the detentions as an unexplained abduction with no reasons given. Both things could be partly true — an official order can exist while the family, at the time of the arrest itself, wasn’t told why it was happening. We don’t yet have independent confirmation resolving this gap.
How Aleema’s Detention Unfolded
Aleema Khan’s detention came first, a day earlier on Sunday. Lahore DC Muhammad Ali Ijaz ordered her detention or arrest, along with a man named Muhammad Ameer, under the same MPO law. Her sister Noreen said Aleema was “picked up” along with her driver after leaving her home on Saturday, with the family only later learning her vehicle was parked at a police station. Police sources confirmed to Dawn that she was taken to Kot Lakhpat jail.
Part of a Wider Pattern
These detentions are the latest in a series of actions against PTI in Punjab ahead of the September 27 march:
- Sahiwal police arrested former mayor Asad Khan Baloch and PTI’s city president in Sahiwal, Muhammad Shahid Chohan
- PTI says MNAs Sanaullah Mastikhel, Ahsan Jamal Khan, and Mian Ghous were also taken into custody
- District authorities issued preventive detention orders against dozens of PTI workers under MPO the week before — 31 people in one Punjab notification, plus 14 more in Toba Tek Singh
- Similar reports have come out of Islamabad, where PTI plans to hold its march
The government has said it will stop the march from going ahead, and the Islamabad High Court has ruled that no political party has the “lawful right” to occupy public roads, highways, interchanges, toll plazas, or buildings in Islamabad.
Final Thoughts
With all three of Imran Khan’s sisters now detained within a two-day span, and dozens of other PTI workers and leaders facing similar action across Punjab, the run-up to September 27 has turned into one of the most intense crackdowns PTI has faced in months — even as the party and the government offer sharply conflicting accounts of what’s actually happening and why.
