LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan, sisters of the PTI founder Imran Khan, were released from Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail on Thursday after more than seven weeks in detention under the Maintenance of Public Order law, the jail’s superintendent said.
The two women were handed over to Noreen Niazi’s daughter, the superintendent, Chaudhry Ijaz Asghar, said. Rana Mudassar Umer, a legal adviser to the PTI, said on social media that both had returned home safely.
There was no word on the release of a third sister, Aleema Khan, who was detained a day before them.
Held before a protest march
The sisters were detained in September under Section 3 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, as the PTI prepared for a planned march. Aleema Khan was detained on September 20, and Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi the next day.
The Lahore deputy commissioner’s 30-day detention orders, later extended for another 30 days, cited police reports that their activities posed a threat to public safety and public order. The sisters challenged the orders in the Lahore High Court.
Noreen Niazi, who is 70, was moved to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology on October 28 after her health worsened in custody, her lawyer said. On November 2, the high court ordered a meeting for her with her daughters.
Minister rules out a deal
Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazal Chaudhry on Thursday rejected speculation about backchannel contacts with the PTI. “I strongly reject the notion that there are any back-channel contacts with the PTI that could affect the legal matters currently pending before the courts, or that there is any possibility of leniency, a deal or any concession from the government,” he said in a television interview.
He urged the party to keep political and legal matters separate from Imran Khan’s health. The releases came a day after Lawyers for the PTI met Imran Khan at Adiala jail and said his blood pressure had been fluctuating.
