Pakistan's police have arrested Aleema Khan, the sister of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, from her home in the eastern city of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province.
The arrest took place on Sunday, one week before a planned protest march by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, scheduled for September 27, to demand his release.
A senior police official in Lahore, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to address the media, confirmed the arrest but provided no further details.
The deputy commissioner of Lahore issued an order for Aleema Khan's 30-day detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law of Punjab. The law allows authorities to order the preventive detention of a person if deemed necessary for public order or safety.
Her lawyer, Rana Mudassar Umer, said in a post on X: "Aleema Khan left her home in the morning with the driver when the police illegally arrested her and took her to an unknown location. Aleema Khan has bail in all her cases in Lahore. It is not yet known in which case, location, or police station she is being held."
There was no immediate comment from the government on the arrest.
On Saturday, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the government would do everything it could to stop the PTI protest march, according to reports.
The PTI condemned the arrest, calling it illegal and demanding her immediate release.
"This is not law. This is an illegal arrest. This is cowardice and a deliberate attempt to worsen the situation," PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram posted on X.
"An elderly lady, the sister of an imprisoned former prime minister, has been illegally arrested from her doorstep because she refused to stay silent about her brother's illegal detention, solitary confinement, and denial of medical care," he added. Aleema Khan is reported to be in her 70s.
Imran Khan, 73, has been jailed since August 2023 following a series of convictions that his party describes as politically motivated. All but one have since been suspended or overturned on appeal.
Concerns over his health, particularly the condition of his right eye, which has required months of specialist treatment, have driven the PTI's campaign for his release.
His sons, Sulaiman and Kasim Khan, have said they are increasingly worried after hearing that their father is "agitated" and suffering from "severe anxiety."
Last month, the country's Supreme Court ordered Pakistani authorities to transfer the former prime minister to the privately run Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, where he was to remain under medical care until the case was next heard, according to his lawyer.
Officials instead took him to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for a brief check-up before returning him to jail. He was not given access to his personal physician, which his party says constituted a breach of the Supreme Court's orders.
