Three Khan sisters now held under 3-MPO: Uzma and Noreen join Aleema in Kot Lakhpat

Updated Monday 21 September, 3:45pm. Two more sisters of PTI founder Imran Khan have been detained under the same section. Noreen Niazi and Uzma Khan were picked up in Lahore on Monday and each given a 30-day order under section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, on the Lahore deputy commissioner's orders issued on police recommendation, according to Geo News. Both were moved to Kot Lakhpat jail at around 2am.

That makes three of Imran Khan's sisters held under 3-MPO inside 24 hours. Aleema Khan was detained on Sunday, also for 30 days, and is in the same jail. Aleema's sons Shahrez Khan and Sher Shah were briefly detained and released.

Thirty-day orders signed on 20 and 21 September run to 20 and 21 October. All three cover PTI's announced 27 September march on Islamabad and three weeks after it.

PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan called the detentions "the first step towards worsening the situation" and said the march would be peaceful. Noreen Niazi told Geo News the family did not understand why the authorities were detaining women: "I do not know why they are so worried."

The original report

Aleema Khan, the sister of PTI founder Imran Khan, was taken into custody in Lahore on Sunday. ARY News reported the detention citing family sources, and Dawn reported PTI saying she had been detained after the Lahore deputy commissioner ordered her arrest under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

She was picked up near Lahore Gymkhana by Lytton Road police. According to the family's account, the deputy commissioner issued the detention order on the police's own request. Her vehicle was taken to Lytton Road Police Station. The grounds for the detention had not been made public by Sunday afternoon.

Lawyer Khalid Yousaf said he had spoken to her by phone shortly before she was taken.

What 3-MPO actually is

"3-MPO" is shorthand for section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, promulgated in 1960 and built on colonial-era detention regulations. It is preventive detention, not arrest on a charge.

The difference matters. An ordinary arrest requires an FIR naming an offence, and the accused goes before a magistrate within 24 hours. A 3-MPO order needs neither. A designated administrative officer, usually a deputy commissioner or a home secretary, signs an order saying a person's continued liberty is likely to disturb public order, and the person is held on that order alone.

Reported practice is an initial detention running from 30 days up to three months, extendable to six months. Detention beyond 90 days generally goes before a review board of High Court judges. The order itself can be challenged in the High Court, which is the route PTI has taken in past 3-MPO cases.

Why now

The detention lands seven days before PTI's announced 27 September march. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has publicly asked the party to call it off, and PTI's position is that only Imran Khan can take that decision. Our report on where those talks stand is here.

The same week has Jamaat-e-Islami's long march moving up the country towards Islamabad, arriving on 23 and 24 September, with Rawalpindi and Islamabad under closure orders from the 21st. The route and the closures are set out here.

Capital police have already begun action against PTI workers in Islamabad, and the Islamabad High Court has an order in place barring activities that restrict freedom of movement in the capital.

What usually happens next

The length is now known: 30 days, to 20 October. That covers the 27 September march and three weeks after it, which is generally the point of such an order.

Two things are still open. First, whether the order is served with written grounds, which is what a High Court challenge normally turns on. Second, whether it is a one-off or the first of several ahead of the 27th. PTI leaders were detained in batches before the November 2024 protest under the same section.

Aleema Khan has been detained and released more than once during PTI's protest cycles, and has become the family's main public voice on Imran Khan's condition in Adiala jail. A medical team examined him there on Sunday, according to ARY News.