Pakistan arrests Imran Khan's sisters ahead of major protest demanding his release

On Sunday, police in Lahore stopped Aleema Khan as she drove to a private club. By Monday morning, all three of Imran Khan's sisters—Aleema, Uzma, and Noreen Niazi—were in custody, charged under Pakistan's Maintenance of Public Order law and sentenced to thirty days in jail. Their lawyer, Rana Mudassir Umar, said the arrests came without warning and without the basic courtesies of detention: no family visits allowed, no legal counsel present, no change of clothes or toiletries provided.

The timing was not accidental. Pakistan's government was moving to suppress a nationwide protest scheduled for Sunday—a "long march" to Islamabad demanding the release of Imran Khan, the country's former prime minister, who has been imprisoned on corruption charges since 2023. Khan's sisters had become visible advocates for him, camping outside his prison and speaking publicly about his conditions. They held no official position in Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, yet they had become targets anyway. When Uzma and Noreen held a press conference at their Lahore home early Monday morning to condemn Aleema's arrest, police surrounded the house with hundreds of officers. More than one hundred entered the residence. They detained the two sisters, their children—ages four and six—grandchildren, and household staff. They seized all the phones. By 7 a.m., the children had been released, but the three sisters remained in custody.

The arrests marked an escalation in what Khan's party describes as systematic harassment. Since his detention three years ago, most senior PTI figures have either been jailed or forced from politics. The family's allegations about Khan's treatment are stark: solitary confinement, no contact with family for six months, denial of medical care for an eye condition. Khan's two sons, speaking from London, accused Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshall Asim Munir, of a "personal vendetta" and said authorities were "slowly killing" their father in prison. Munir and Khan had clashed when Khan was prime minister; many observers believe the military orchestrated the 2024 election that brought the current government to power, specifically to keep Khan's party out of office.

The government's fear is palpable and concrete. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Monday that authorities would "find a permanent solution" to prevent the march and stop the country from being "shut down." Over the weekend, Islamabad had been transformed into a fortified zone—barriers, armed security, shipping containers blocking entry points. Sheikh Waqas Akram, a senior PTI leader, said the government believed hundreds of thousands might march and that such numbers could "topple the government," as protest movements had recently done in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He described police raids on homes, harassment of families, bulldozing of houses, and mass arrests of workers and supporters. "They are going to insane levels to crush the long march," he said.

Khan remains Pakistan's most popular politician despite years in prison. The country is gripped by economic crisis and fuel shortages tied to Middle East turmoil. Anger at Khan's alleged mistreatment is widespread. The government's response—detaining his sisters, flooding the capital with security, threatening to use "violence and arrests" to stop the march—suggests officials believe they cannot survive if large numbers of people are permitted to gather and protest. Umar, the sisters' lawyer, said he had challenged their arrests in the high court and hoped for a hearing soon. The long march is scheduled for Sunday. What happens then will test whether the government's security apparatus can hold.