LHC summons Punjab home secretary, Kot Lakhpat Jail chief over Imran's sisters' detention

Court seeks explanation for continued detention of Aleema, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi after their 30-day orders expire

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday summoned the Punjab home secretary and the superintendent of Kot Lakhpat Jail over the continued detention of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s three sisters despite the expiry of their 30-day detention orders.

Justice Abher Gul Khan adjourned further proceedings until October 28 and directed the two officials to appear before the court and explain why Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi remained in custody after the expiry of their detention period.

The three sisters were detained in September under Section 3 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960, ahead of PTI’s planned September 27 protest march towards Islamabad. Aleema was detained on September 20, while Uzma and Noreen were taken into custody a day later.

The Lahore deputy commissioner issued the 30-day detention orders. The orders cited police reports alleging that the women’s activities posed a threat to public safety and the maintenance of public order.

The sisters subsequently challenged their detention in the Lahore High Court, seeking the annulment of the orders and their immediate release. On September 25, the court declined to suspend the detention notifications against Uzma and Noreen at that stage and sought responses from the relevant authorities.

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The petition, filed a day earlier by Shahrez Khan, Aleema’s son, sought the recovery of the three sisters, arguing that their continued detention was unlawful. They had been detained for 30 days under orders issued by the Lahore deputy commissioner but remained at Kot Lakhpat Jail after the detention period expired.

During Thursday’s hearing, the judge asked the petitioner’s counsel, Rana Mudassar Umar, why the Lahore deputy commissioner had not been impleaded as a respondent. The counsel said the deputy commissioner had not been made a party to the petition because the detention notification issued by the official had expired.

Uzma’s husband, Ahed Khan, then approached the rostrum and requested that the court summon the deputy commissioner as well.

Justice Abher Gul observed that the deputy commissioner had not even been named as a respondent in the petition and directed the petitioner’s counsel to satisfy Ahed on the matter.

Fresh plea

Shahrez filed a fresh petition in the LHC on Wednesday, seeking the production and release of his mother and her sisters, filed through Advocate Rana Mudassar Umar, named the Punjab Home Secretary, the inspector general of police, the capital city police officer and the superintendent of Kot Lakhpat Jail as respondents.

The petition stated that the sisters’ 30-day detention orders, issued on September 20, had expired on October 19, but they remained in custody despite requests for their release.

It argued that their continued detention violated the law and their fundamental rights, adding that they were not wanted in any criminal case and could be implicated in what the petitioner called false cases if they were not released.

The plea further contended that the detentions stemmed from the sisters’ efforts to secure their brother’s release and that preventive detention could not be used as a substitute for ordinary criminal law.

It challenged the orders under Article 10 of the Constitution and Section 3 of the Punjab MPO Ordinance, 1960, and asked the court to declare the orders void and direct the jail superintendent to produce the women before the court and release them.