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Imran Khan’s Sisters Released After 53 Days in JailPakistan
Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi walked free from Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore after Punjab authorities withdrew the detention orders that had held them for about seven weeks.
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Two sisters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder and former prime minister Imran Khan were released from Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore on Thursday after about 53 days in detention, following the withdrawal of their detention orders by the Punjab authorities.
Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi walked out of the jail at about 2pm, according to their lawyer, Rana Mudassar Umer, who said in a post on X that both women had returned home safely. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf confirmed the release, and PTI lawyer Taimur Malik also confirmed that the two women had been freed after the detention orders were withdrawn.
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The two women had been held under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960. Their lawyer told Reuters that the detention orders had been suspended, while Dawn and AFP reported that the authorities withdrew the joint order ahead of a scheduled hearing in the Lahore High Court on the sisters’ challenge to their detention. The detention had first been ordered for 30 days and was then extended for another 30 days, after which the sisters challenged it in the high court.
All three sisters were detained in September on the orders of the Lahore deputy commissioner, as the PTI prepared for a planned march on Islamabad to demand Imran Khan’s release. Aleema Khan was taken into custody on September 20, while Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi were detained a day later, on September 21. The government said it detained the sisters because they could have been a threat to law and order ahead of the planned march, which ultimately did not go ahead, according to Reuters.
Their third sister, Aleema Khan, remains in custody under a separate detention order. Kot Lakhpat Jail Superintendent Chaudhry Ijaz Asghar confirmed to The Express Tribune that Aleema Khan remains in jail, and her legal team is pursuing the withdrawal of her separate detention order.
During the detention, Noreen Niazi was moved from the jail to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore on October 28 after her blood pressure rose. The Lahore High Court had earlier summoned Punjab’s home secretary and the Kot Lakhpat jail superintendent to appear in person with reports on a petition seeking the sisters’ release, filed by Aleema Khan’s son, Shahrez Khan.
Imran Khan has been jailed since August 2023. Their lawyer said the two women had spent 53 days in detention without being formally charged. The Punjab government had not issued a statement on the release by Thursday evening.
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