Pakistan arrests sisters of imprisoned former PM Imran Khan

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan's party said on Monday that his three sisters had been arrested.

"Punjab police have raided Aleem Khan's home and have abducted Imran Khan's other two sisters, his nephews and their children," Zulfi Bukhari, a spokesman for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, said on his social media platform X.

"Khan's sisters and their children were taken into custody, but the children were released," PTI's information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram told AFP.

"All three sisters have been sent to Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore," he added.

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The law enforcement agencies arrested Khan's sisters Aleema Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Khan from Lahore, the capital city of Punjab province.

The deputy commissioner of Lahore on Sunday passed two separate orders, the copies of which were seen by AFP, for the three sisters' 30-day detention under the Maintenance of Public Order law of Punjab province.

Punjab police did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

Khan's party has announced a protest call for 27 September.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Sunday the protest call was illegal.

"We will not allow them to block roads and disrupt people's lives," Tarar said.

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Khan has been in jail since 2023 and was sentenced late last year, along with his wife, to 17 years in jail on corruption charges they both deny.

The 73-year-old Khan, who was also a former Pakistan cricket captain, was prime minister from 2018 to 2022 before being removed in a no-confidence vote during a political crisis over tensions between his government and Pakistan's powerful military establishment.