Imran Khan’s Sisters’ Detention Extended by Another 30 Days, Lahore High Court Told

Highlights

• The Punjab government informed the Lahore High Court on Monday that the detention of Imran Khan’s sisters — Aleema Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi — has been extended by another 30 days on the recommendation of the Lahore deputy commissioner
• The three women were detained in September under Section 3 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960, ahead of PTI’s planned protest march on Islamabad, and are held at Kot Lakhpat jail
• Their original 30-day orders expired on October 19 and 20 — but the government told the court the extension had already been approved on October 7
• Justice Abher Gul Khan disposed of the release petition filed by Aleema’s son Shahrez because the deputy commissioner who issued the detention orders was not made a respondent, so the court could not go beyond the petition’s scope

What the court was told on Monday

The Imran Khan sisters detention extended story reached the Lahore High Court on Monday through a petition that was, in the end, decided on procedure rather than on the detention itself. An assistant advocate general of Punjab told Justice Abher Gul Khan that the government had approved a further 30-day detention of Aleema Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi on the recommendation of the Lahore deputy commissioner, and submitted a report on behalf of the provincial home secretary stating that the detention period had been extended on October 7 (Dawn). The Nation’s account of the hearing is the same: the court was informed the detention of all three women “had been extended for another 30 days on the recommendation of the Lahore deputy commissioner” (The Nation).

The petitioner’s counsel, Rana Mudassar Umar, requested the court to order the recovery of the three women and their production before the court (Dawn). He did not get that order — for a reason that had nothing to do with the merits.

Why the release petition was disposed of

Justice Khan observed that while the deputy commissioner had issued the detention notifications, the petitioner had not made the official a respondent in the petition, held that the court could not issue an order beyond the scope of the petition, and disposed of it in light of the home secretary’s report (Dawn). The petition had been filed by Shahrez Khan, Aleema Khan’s son, alleging that the three sisters remained confined at Kot Lakhpat jail despite the end of their initial 30-day detention orders — October 19 for Aleema and October 20 for Uzma and Noreen (Dawn).

At a previous hearing, the court had summoned the Punjab home secretary and the superintendent of Kot Lakhpat jail to appear in person, and both appeared before the court in line with that order, according to The News (The News).

How the sisters ended up in Kot Lakhpat

The detentions date back to September, when the PTI was gearing up for a planned protest march towards Islamabad. Aleema Khan was detained on September 20 in Lahore under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, and shifted to Kot Lakhpat jail; her sisters Noreen and Uzma were detained under the same provision a day later, following a recommendation from the police (The News). The detentions came ahead of PTI’s nationwide protest, including a planned long march on Islamabad on September 27, to demand Imran Khan’s release and the supremacy of the Constitution (The News). The initial detention orders ran for 30 days and expired on October 19 for Aleema and October 20 for Uzma and Noreen, the petitioner’s counsel told the court at the previous hearing (Dawn).

The October 7 problem at the heart of the case

One date in the government’s own report deserves a closer look, because it is the factual tension the family’s lawyers will build on. The home secretary’s report says the extension was approved on October 7 (Dawn) — that is, while the original September orders still had roughly two weeks to run, and well before the October 19–20 expiry dates that Shahrez Khan’s October 20 petition was built around. The Express Tribune’s report adds that the deputy commissioner had sent a proposal to the Punjab government recommending a further extension, which the government approved (The Express Tribune).

Read together, the sequence is this: the state moved to extend the detention before the first orders lapsed; the family went to court after the lapse arguing the women were being held without a live order; and the court never reached that argument, because the petition named the wrong respondents. The practical consequence is that the legal door is not closed — a fresh petition that impleads the deputy commissioner would put the October 7 extension itself before a judge. Whether the family files one is the next thing to watch. Aleema Khan’s legal calendar is crowded in any case: in a separate matter, a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court has deferred its verdict in her November 26 protest case for the fifth time (The Express Tribune).

The bottom line: the extension itself was never really in doubt once the government produced the October 7 approval — what Monday decided was only that this petition, against these respondents, could not undo it. The sisters remain at Kot Lakhpat for another 30 days, in a week when the government is simultaneously absorbing public anger over another petrol price rise. The legal fight now turns on whether the family returns to court with the deputy commissioner named — and on what a judge makes of an extension signed before the original detention had even expired.