Imran Khan's sister Noreen Niazi moved from jail to Lahore cardiac hospital

Noreen Niazi, the 70-year-old sister of former prime minister Imran Khan, was moved from Kot Lakhpat jail to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore after her health deteriorated, her family's lawyer said on Wednesday, prompting PTI to demand access for her relatives and to criticise the conditions in which she is held.

Rana Mudassar Omar, the lawyer for the sisters of the PTI founder, confirmed the transfer in a post on social media, Express News reported. He said Niazi had been shifted to the cardiac hospital after she complained of feeling unwell, and that she faces an acute shortage of facilities in the jail.

PTI sources told Express News that blood tests were being carried out on Niazi and that she was being treated in a private room in the hospital's structural heart disease department.

Omar said Niazi was being held illegally and that no member of the family had been informed of the transfer.

Hussain Ahmad Yousafzai, spokesman for Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Aain Pakistan, condemned the move in the strongest terms, saying Niazi had suddenly fallen ill in jail and had been taken to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology with extreme secrecy. He said a government that had lost in the political arena had now turned to a vindictive politics that targeted Imran Khan's non-political, household sisters, and that keeping an elderly woman in severe distress and then moving her without informing her family or legal team was a violation of both humanity and law.

Yousafzai demanded immediate access for the family and lawyers to Niazi, her sisters Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan, and their cousin Qasim Zaman Khan, and demanded their immediate release. He said responsibility for any harm to Niazi's health, or to any detainee, would rest with the government and the jail administration.

UrduPoint, which also reported the transfer, said PTI had expressed grave concern over Niazi's condition, her diagnosis and her treatment.

The reports did not say what she was being treated for, when she fell ill, or which authority ordered the move. Neither jail officials nor the Punjab Institute of Cardiology issued any statement in either report, and the grounds on which Niazi and her relatives are held were not specified.