The Lahore High Court (LHC) has summoned the Punjab home secretary and the superintendent of Kot Lakhpat Jail in connection with a petition seeking the release of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s three sisters.
Justice Abher Gul Khan took up the petition on Thursday after the sisters’ family challenged their continued detention despite the expiry of the 30-day detention period.
Imran Khan’s sisters, Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan, were detained by authorities in September under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960, ahead of a planned PTI protest march towards Islamabad.
A fresh petition was filed by Aleema Khan’s son, Shahrez Khan, on Wednesday, arguing that the detention period had expired but the three women remained incarcerated at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail.
During Thursday’s hearing, Advocate Rana Mudassar Umar, representing the petitioner, informed the court that the detention orders had expired on October 19 and 20, but the detainees had not been released.
Justice Abher Gul Khan questioned the counsel over his decision not to include the Lahore deputy commissioner as a respondent in the petition.
The lawyer explained that the deputy commissioner had not been made a party because the detention notification issued by the official had already expired.
Uzma Khan’s husband, Ahad Khan, also approached the court and requested that the deputy commissioner be summoned. However, the judge observed that the official could not be called before the court because he had not been included as a party to the case.
The court subsequently adjourned the hearing until October 28 and directed the Punjab home secretary and the Kot Lakhpat Jail superintendent to appear in person and submit reports regarding the matter.
In the petition filed on Wednesday, Shahrez Khan maintained that the legal period of detention had ended, yet the three sisters continued to remain in custody. He requested the court to order their immediate release.
The petition alleged that the detentions were linked to the sisters’ efforts to secure their brother’s release from prison.
It further argued that preventive detention could not be used as a substitute for ordinary criminal proceedings and challenged the legality of the detention orders under Article 10 of the Constitution and the safeguards provided by Section 3 of the MPO Ordinance.
The petitioner urged the court to direct the jail superintendent to produce the three women before the court and order their release in the interest of justice.
He also requested that the detention orders be declared unlawful and their implementation suspended pending the final decision on the matter.
