Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi walked out of Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail on Thursday, 52 days after they were picked up under a preventive detention law ahead of a PTI protest march. Their sister Aleema Khan, arrested a day before them, is still inside. The release came not from a court verdict, but from the withdrawal of the detention orders themselves.
The 52-day ledger
Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi were arrested on 21 September under Section 3 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, ahead of planned PTI protests, according to Abb Takk. The law lets a district administration detain a person preventively, without a criminal charge, when it says public order is at risk. They were held on orders of the Lahore deputy commissioner as the PTI geared up for a protest march towards Islamabad.
The first order ran for 30 days. When it lapsed last month, the detention was challenged in the Lahore High Court, and the Punjab government told the court it had been extended for another 30 days. That put the legal ceiling at 60 days. The two women were released on day 52, eight days short of it, after the extended orders were withdrawn. PTI legal counsel Rana Mudassar Umer confirmed the release to Dawn and said both women had returned home safely.
The arithmetic shows how preventive detention works: a 30-day order, once extended, can hold a person for two months without any charge or trial. Thursday’s release did not shorten a sentence, because there was no sentence.
Two free, one still inside
Aleema Khan was arrested on 20 September, a day before her sisters, and she remains in jail. Abb Takk reported that no information about her release was immediately available, and Dawn reported the same. The three sisters were picked up under the same law, ahead of the same protest, yet only two of the three walked out on Thursday.
The detention also had a medical chapter. On 28 October, Noreen Niazi was moved from Kot Lakhpat jail to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology because of high blood pressure. Her lawyer said no family member had been informed, and the PTI condemned the transfer. The government insisted she was fine, and Rana Sanaullah, the adviser to the prime minister on political affairs, told the Senate on 29 October that all her medical tests were normal. Imran Khan himself was taken to PIMS at night for a medical examination in a separate episode.
That hospital stay is part of why the 52 days drew attention beyond the PTI: a 30-day order stretching past seven weeks, with a family saying it was not told, is a different matter from a routine arrest.
What withdrawal means, and what it does not
Nothing in the reports suggests the two women were charged, tried, or acquitted. An MPO detention order is not a conviction, and its withdrawal is not an acquittal. It simply means the administration has lifted the order that kept them in jail. PTI lawyer Taimur Malik said on X the two women had been released upon the withdrawal of what he called the unlawful MPO detention order, and added that everyone else detained under these MPO orders should be released as well. Imran Khan’s £190m appeal stalled again after a one-hour meeting, so the legal picture around the family remains unsettled.
Abb Takk reported, citing sources, that PTI chairman Barrister Gohar played a key role in securing the release. No reason for the withdrawal was given in the reports, and no Punjab government statement on it was cited in them. Reuters carried the release on the basis of local media reports and used variant spellings of the two names; this report follows the spellings used by Dawn and Abb Takk.
What happens next
The first open question is Aleema Khan. Her order was also extended, and nothing in Thursday’s reports says whether it will be withdrawn or run its course. The second is the Lahore High Court challenge, filed when the first 30-day period lapsed. With two of the three orders withdrawn, it is not clear whether that challenge continues or falls away.
The third question is wider. Taimur Malik’s call for the release of everyone else held under MPO orders points to detainees beyond the three sisters, all picked up ahead of the same planned protest. Whether the withdrawal signals a wider review, or was limited to these two cases, has not been stated. Imran Khan himself remains in jail, and the Supreme Court put Khan’s Shifa transfer case on hold for three more weeks. Until Aleema Khan’s position is clarified, the release is a partial one: two sisters home after 52 days, the third still in Kot Lakhpat jail.
