PAKISTAN ARRESTS IMRAN KHAN'S SISTER AHEAD OF PTI MARCH

Pakistani police arrested Aleema Khan, sister of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, at her home in Lahore on Sunday, her party and a police official said. The arrest came a week before a march planned by Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to Islamabad on 27 September demanding his release. Lahore's deputy commissioner ordered her detained for 30 days under Punjab's Maintenance of Public Order law, allowing preventive detention deemed necessary for public safety. PTI called the arrest illegal and demanded her release.

The detention order alleged Aleema Khan had been mobilising Imran Khan's supporters "through social media and public meetings" and accused her of trying to "create law and order situations". Her lawyer, Rana Mudassar Umer, said she was arrested while leaving home with her driver and taken to an unknown location, adding she already had bail in all her Lahore cases. Her family said it had "no contact or news of her whereabouts", and her son, Shahrez Khan, demanded the government disclose her location. The order said she would be taken to Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore.

PTI supporters plan to march on Islamabad on 27 September calling for Imran Khan's release. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday the government would do everything it could to stop the march, local media reported. Streets in Islamabad have been lined with shipping containers to protect government buildings ahead of the planned demonstrations. Imran Khan has been detained since 2023, when he was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to declare money earned from selling gifts received while in office. PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram called the arrest "cowardice and a deliberate attempt to worsen the situation."