All three sisters of jailed Pakistani ex-PM Imran Khan arrested

Punjab police in Lahore arrested all three sisters of jailed former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday — Aleema Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Khan. Sheikh Waqas Akram, information secretary for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told AFP that the sisters' children were also detained alongside them but were later released.

PTI spokesman Zulfi Bukhari said on social media platform X that police had raided the home of Aleem Khan, another relative, and had taken the two other sisters along with nephews and their children.

The deputy commissioner of Lahore issued two separate orders on Sunday, copies of which were seen by AFP, placing all three sisters in 30-day detention under Punjab province's Maintenance of Public Order law. Punjab police did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.

Protest planned

Khan's party has already called for a protest on September 27. Pakistan's 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," Tarar said.

The 73-year-old Khan, a former captain of Pakistan's cricket team, has been jailed since 2023. Late last year he and his wife were sentenced to 17 years in prison on corruption charges, which both deny. Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022 before being removed in a no-confidence vote amid a political crisis rooted in tensions between his government and Pakistan's powerful military establishment.