Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s sister arrested before planned PTI march

Pakistani police detained Aleema Khan, sister of former prime minister Imran Khan, at her Lahore residence on Sunday and placed her in 30-day preventive custody under Punjab’s Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law. A copy of the detention order, seen by Al Jazeera, cited the MPO, which permits authorities to impose preventive detention if considered necessary for public order or safety. A senior Lahore police official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to talk to media, confirmed the arrest but gave no further details. Aleema Khan’s lawyer, Rana Mudassar Umer, said she was taken from her home by police while leaving with a driver and that she holds bail in all her Lahore cases; he added it was not yet clear in which case, at which location, or in which police station she was being held. PTI spokespeople and party officials condemned the detention as illegal and framed it as an attempt to silence her ahead of the party’s planned protest march on September 27. PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram described the arrest as ‘‘cowardice’’ and said the woman, in her 70s, had been targeted for speaking out about her brother’s detention and medical treatment. The arrest came amid sustained controversy over Imran Khan’s imprisonment and health. Khan, 73, has been jailed since August 2023 following multiple convictions his party says are politically motivated; most of those convictions have been suspended or overturned on appeal. PTI has pressed for his release citing concerns about his medical condition, including treatment for his right eye. His sons recently told Al Jazeera they were worried about his agitation and severe anxiety. Tensions intensified after a Supreme Court order instructed authorities to transfer Khan to the privately run Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for medical care, but officials instead brought him briefly to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for a check-up, then returned him to jail without access to his personal physician, which PTI said violated the court order. The government has not immediately commented on Aleema Khan’s detention; Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi had said the government would take measures to stop the forthcoming PTI march, according to Reuters.