Families of three sisters of former prime minister Imran Khan have asked the Lahore High Court to let relatives and lawyers meet the women and give them medicines. The applications were filed a day before Kasim Khan, Imran Khan's son, said on Thursday that his aunts were still being held without any update to the family, and that he and his brother had not spoken to their father for more than six months.
Kasim Khan made the comments in a post on X, according to a report in The Times of India. He described Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan as still "abducted", and said lawyers and relatives had been told neither how the women were nor why they were incarcerated. On his father, he wrote that there was "complete silence" and that "we do not even know the true state of his health."
What Kasim Khan said about his father
Imran Khan has been in Adiala Jail since August 2023. The protests his party called were meant to seek news of his health and his release. Kasim Khan said he and his brother had had no contact with him for more than six months.
He also pointed to demonstrations inside Pakistan. In his post he said thousands of people were peacefully protesting what he called an illegal and politically motivated imprisonment, and that "no barricade, intimidation or repression" could silence a demand to be heard. Those claims are his. The Times of India report does not independently confirm the size of the protests or the condition of the detained women.
The court applications
The Times of India, citing Dawn, reported that Advocate Rana Mudassar Umar filed two civil miscellaneous applications in writ petitions that were already pending. They were filed for Shah Raiz Khan, son of Aleema Khan, and Sakeena Niazi, daughter of Noreen Niazi.
The applications challenge the refusal of meetings with the three women and raise access to medicines. The families allege that relatives and lawyers have not been allowed to see them or to hand over medicines. The papers say medicines were provided only once, and that no one was allowed to meet the sisters after that. The pleas ask the court to direct that family members and lawyers be allowed to meet the women and supply medicines.
Detention before the September protest
Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan were detained for 30 days before a protest and march to Islamabad called by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan's party, for September 27. The party wanted his release and said it was mobilising support for the supremacy of the Constitution. The detentions came during a wider crackdown on PTI ahead of those countrywide demonstrations.
On September 24, the Lahore High Court declined a request to suspend at once the notifications that ordered the preventive detention of the three sisters. Preventive detention means holding a person for a limited period on an official order, rather than after a criminal conviction.
The new applications do not, on the material reported so far, record a fresh court decision. What the families are seeking is access: meetings, lawyers and medicines. Kasim Khan has linked that lack of access to the silence around his father, and has said protests over the imprisonment will continue.
