Sanaullah Pledges Noreen Family Visit Access
Noreen family visit access will be pursued by the government, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah told the Senate on Thursday, 29 October 2026. He said he would ask the relevant authorities about reports that relatives of Noreen Niazi had not been allowed to meet her in custody, and he promised to try to have access granted.
Noreen Niazi, 70, is the sister of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan. A day earlier, she was admitted to Lahore’s Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) after her health deteriorated while in custody, according to her legal counsel. The counsel also claimed that her family was neither informed nor granted access during her treatment.
Sanaullah addressed that claim directly during the Senate session. “Let me ask the relevant authorities about the claim that the relatives of Noreen Niazi have not been allowed to see her,” he said. “We will try to have her relatives granted access to her,” he added.
Noreen family visit: what Sanaullah said on her health
Sanaullah said Noreen was transferred to hospital for treatment immediately after she complained of poor health. He said her condition was stable and that all her medical tests had returned normal results. That assurance was the government’s first public response in the Senate to the family’s complaint about access during the hospital stay.
The hospital transfer followed a detention that began on 21 September, when Noreen was detained under Section 3 of the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960, ahead of the planned PTI long march towards Islamabad. Authorities issued initial detention orders for 30 days. The detention at Kot Lakhpat Jail was then extended on 7 October for another 30 days, which will end on 20 November.
Feature Pakistan had already reported Noreen’s hospital transfer when she was taken to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology. Thursday’s Senate statement is the follow-up to that report: it deals not with the transfer itself, but with the family’s access afterwards, and with the government’s account of her medical condition. Readers following the wider case can also read the Lahore High Court proceedings on the detention of Imran Khan’s sisters and the court’s summons to officials in that case.
Sanaullah also set out the government’s position on why Noreen was in jail. He said she was detained because she allegedly wanted to create unrest in the country and had sought to attack Islamabad during the long march. He also accused her of inciting people. Those claims remain the government’s allegations, and they sit alongside the family’s complaint about access, which Sanaullah did not dismiss. He promised to raise the access question with the authorities, rather than rejecting it outright.
Imran Khan’s custody raised in the same session
During the same proceedings, Sanaullah addressed concerns over the facilities available to Imran Khan in custody. He said reports on the ground situation, including amenities, food and other services, had been submitted to the Supreme Court. He said there was no difference between the report submitted to the court and the report provided by the jail superintendent.
Referring to the matter of Imran Khan’s incarceration being raised in the Senate, Sanaullah told Senator Ali Zafar that it was his responsibility as a senator to engage in discussion on the issue. He maintained, however, that the matter was sub judice.
“He is under judicial custody as per law. They [PTI] have appealed to the courts, and therefore they should seek reprieve from the judiciary,” he said.
On 18 August, the Supreme Court ordered Imran Khan’s transfer to Shifa International Hospital for treatment, weekly meetings with his family, access to his personal physician, Dr Faisal Sultan, and telephone conversations with his children. The government took him to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on the night of 20-21 August, citing security concerns, where specialists examined him. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Imran was declared medically fit and returned to Adiala jail.
