LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday summoned the Punjab home secretary and the superintendent of Kot Lakhpat jail in a petition seeking the release of three sisters of former prime minister Imran Khan.
All three of Imran’s sisters — Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan — were detained by authorities in September, under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, as the PTI geared up for a planned protest march towards Islamabad. Their detention was ordered for 30 days.
A day earlier, Aleema’s son, Shahrez Khan, filed a fresh plea challenging their detention. It stated that Imran’s sisters remained at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail despite the lapse of the 30-day period of their detention.
Justice Abher Gul Khan took up the petition on Thursday.
Advocate Rana Mudassar Umar appeared on behalf of the petitioner and submitted that the detention orders of the three sisters expired on Oct 19 and 20, but they had not been released.
Justice Khan asked the counsel why he had not made the Lahore deputy commissioner a respondent in the petition.
The counsel replied that the deputy commissioner had not been impleaded because the detention notification issued by the official had expired.
Uzma’s husband, Ahad Khan, also approached the rostrum and asked the court to summon the deputy commissioner. The judge, however, observed that the official could not be summoned as he had not been made a party to the petition.
Subsequently, the court adjourned the hearing until Oct 28 and directed the home secretary and the jail superintendent to appear in person along with their reports on the matter.
In Wednesday’s petition, Shahrez contended that the detention period had expired, but the three sisters remained in custody. He asked the court to order their release.
It was argued that their detention was a consequence of their efforts for their brother’s release. It further contended that the preventive detention could not replace ordinary criminal law and that the order violated Article 10 as well as the safeguards of Section 3 of the MPO.
The petitioner requested the court to direct the jail superintendent to produce the detainees before the court and “set them at liberty, in the interest of justice, equity and fair play”.
The petitioner asked the court to declare the detention orders void and issue directives for the detainees’ release, while suspending the operation of the orders.