The three sisters of jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan are currently in custody following a series of raids and detentions. The family claims these actions are part of a broader campaign of intimidation aimed at women, children, and domestic staff. This incident has escalated tensions just days before the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s planned nationwide march to Islamabad on September 27.
It also alleges that officers deliberately located and destroyed CCTV equipment throughout the properties, briefly detaining Aleema Khan’s son Shahrez Khan’s wife and terrifying two young children, ages two and seven, in the process before releasing her only when the toddler would not stop crying. Critics of the government describe this as evidence of an entrenched security establishment determined to keep Khan and his movement contained by any means; the government insists its actions are lawful responses to genuine threats to public order. The ordeal began on the morning of September 20, when Aleema Khan left her Lahore home for what the family called a personal errand and never returned, according to a detailed statement issued by Imran Khan’s family and reviewed for this report. By early afternoon, her car had been located and abandoned at Mozang Police Station, and by evening it had emerged that she was being held under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, a colonial-era law that the family’s statement calls a tool used to bypass due process, silence dissent, intimidate political opponents, and suppress peaceful political activity. By roughly 2:10 am, the family said, those detained, including Uzma Khan, Noreen Niazi, and several younger relatives, were taken to Chaburji Police Station for identification. Around 3:45 am, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi were separated from the rest and transferred to jail, where they remain.
The family’s account describes officers ordering subordinates in Urdu to seize people and shove them roughly into vehicles, language the statement cites as evidence of the “deeply disrespectful, intimidating, and highly unprofessional” conduct of the raid. The statement said the family and their lawyers have had no contact with either woman since. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has publicly warned the party against proceeding, cautioning that PTI could not “achieve anything through such drama” and urging leaders to step back before matters became irreversible.
