Islamabad, October 3, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Women in Pakistan are increasingly facing detention and restrictions for their involvement in political movements, with a report by Parrhesia News alleging that authorities are using preventive detention to curb activism and limit political mobilisation.
The report highlighted the detention of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sisters, Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi, in Lahore ahead of a demonstration demanding his release. Aleema was detained on September 20, while Uzma and Noreen were taken into custody the following day. All three were issued 30-day detention orders under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.
Their detention preceded a protest initially scheduled for September 27, which was later postponed to October 4. The report said the sisters’ family had resorted to a hunger strike while the women remained in custody.
Authorities reportedly justified the detentions by claiming that the women were mobilising supporters and posed a potential threat to public peace and tranquillity. Parrhesia News argued that the arrests reflected concerns over their ability to maintain public engagement with Khan’s political cause, rather than convictions for criminal offences.
The report also cited the case of Pakistani human-rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, who were reportedly re-arrested last month, hours after the Supreme Court granted them bail and suspended their 17-year prison sentences in a cybercrime case.
Mazari has represented Baloch students, families of forcibly disappeared people, journalists and others, according to the report, which questioned the practical effect of court orders when individuals are taken back into custody.
The report described these cases as part of a wider pattern in which preventive detention and re-arrests are used to restrict political and human-rights activism in Pakistan.
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