Pakistani authorities arrested three sisters of the imprisoned former prime Minister Imran Khan in Lahore on Sunday, 20 September 2026, a week before his party’s supporters are due to march on Islamabad in a nationwide protest.
Aleema Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Khan were detained under Punjab’s Maintenance of Public Order law for 30 days on an order issued by Lahore’s deputy commissioner. All three were sent to Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore.
The sisters’ children were also taken into custody, though authorities later released them. The brief did not specify the children’s number or ages.
The arrest order alleged that Khanum had mobilised Imran Khan’s supporters through social media and public meetings. It said Khanum had sought to bring people together to create law and order situations and raise objectionable slogans against the government.
Those held under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance can challenge their detention in the High Court. It was unclear whether the sisters had filed such a challenge or sought bail.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, known as PTI, has called protests across the country for 27 September. Demonstrators plan to travel to Islamabad, where streets are already lined with shipping containers intended to safeguard government buildings.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Sunday that the protest call was illegal. “We will not allow them to block roads and disrupt people’s lives,” he said.
Sheikh Waqas Akram, PTI’s central information secretary, condemned the arrests. “A sister is being punished for speaking up for her brother,” he said.
Shahrez Khan, described in the brief as Khanum’s son, wrote on X: “We demand the government immediately disclose her whereabouts and ensure her safe return”.
The detentions add to the confrontation between the authorities and the movement led by Imran Khan, who has been imprisoned since 2023. The former Pakistan cricket captain, 73, served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
Khan was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to declare money earned from the sale of gifts he had received while in office. Last year, he was jailed for 14 years in a land corruption case. He has been sentenced to 17 years on corruption charges and has faced charges in over 100 cases.
The government has described the planned protest as unlawful, while PTI has condemned the detention of Khan’s relatives. The brief did not set out the government’s specific grounds for blocking the march or its security assessment behind the barriers in Islamabad.
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