Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Sunday criticized PTI founder Imran Khan’s sisters for giving interviews to Indian media, while one of the former prime minister’s sisters Noreen Niazi criticized the PML-N for having “double standards”.
Last week, Imran’s sisters had camped outside Adiala Jail, where the PTI founder is currently imprisoned, along with other PTI members after they were denied a meeting. According to PTI, Aleema Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen were “sitting peacefully” outside the jail when they were manhandled and “violently detained” by the police.
After being repeatedly banned from meeting her brother, Noreen and another sister of Imran, Aleema Khan, gave separate interviews to Indian media about the matter.
“These three sisters of Imran Ahmed Niazi sahib“On May 9 they were also present at the Central Commander’s House,” he said, but added that until now they had not been told not to “scream victimization.”
“If you ask me my legal opinion, their presence is proof… They were there on May 9, they brought groups there and it is seen on cameras that the three are present there,” Tarar said.
“The drama unfolding today has a reason.”
He said the PTI was not digesting the foreign policy success well after Marka-i-Haq.
“In their time, the economy had fallen; (now) it is moving towards an economy of stability. They are not able to digest this.”
“Why do these sisters go to Indian and Afghan channels and cry for their brother?” Tarar stressed. “In the interview that Noreen Khan Niazi gave to an Indian channel, did she say that she condemns Modi? Did she talk about those innocent children who were martyred? Did she talk about Irtaza Abbas? Did she talk about those citizens who were martyred in Muridke and Bahawalpur? Did she talk about those soldiers and young officers who were martyred? Did she pay tribute to them?”
He criticized the sisters’ actions and said:
“Those who go to Indian channels and defame Pakistan should be ashamed of themselves.”
He added that Indian channels were providing their platform because they knew that “the mentality of this family and this party is against Pakistan.”
He further criticized Noreen for not condemning Hindutva ideology on Indian channel, cruelty against Muslims in India or speaking on the issue of Indian Occupied Kashmir.
“What a shame!” the minister said emphatically. “That you go on Indian channels and don’t talk about occupied Kashmir, Marka-i-Haq, the martyrs, and go and cry about the victimization of a prisoner involved in a corruption case?”
He said the family was creating “hype” in foreign media about the danger to Imran’s health, saying: “Let me assure you: he is fit and healthy. There is no problem. He runs every day on a treadmill for an hour.”
“This type of privileged prisoner, this type of VVIP prisoner who enjoys five-star hotel facilities, is not found anywhere in the world,” he said.
He added: “If only Noreen Khan sahibayou had gone there and talked about your martyr, about that girl Irtiza Abbas. About the victory in Marka-i-Haq…if only you had paid tribute to your Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff, and condemned Modi…but for you, politics is important, defaming Pakistan is important and personal matters are important.”
Noreen Niazi rebukes PML-N
Meanwhile, Noreen Khan criticized the ruling party, PML-N, for what she called “double standards”.
“The double standards of the PML-N are astonishing. They attack me for giving an interview to the Indian media, but Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister, has used Indian platforms to defame Pakistan’s own military leadership,” he alleged, adding that today, “he and his family sit comfortably in power thanks to a blatantly manipulated mandate.”
“His brother, his daughter, and their group enjoy the benefits of authority while lecturing others on ‘principles.'”
He further alleged that “elements aligned with this same power structure blatantly manipulated parts of my interview using artificial intelligence, a deliberate attempt to distort my words and mislead the public.
“These are the same actors who have kept Imran Khan in illegal and inhumane isolation for four weeks, separated from his family, his lawyers and his basic rights,” his accusation continued, adding: “I have never held public office. My sole purpose in speaking publicly is to expose the injustice of my brother’s imprisonment and urge human rights organizations and the judiciary to recognize the systematic denial of his legal, political and humanitarian rights.”
‘Nexus between politics, terrorism and crime’
Tarar also accused Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and his team of having “links with enemies of the state”, saying the matter was now “in the public eye”.
“More than 4,000 cases of terrorist infiltration have been registered, who are taking refuge [in KP’s] areas, in three years. But the punishment rate is non-existent,” he alleged. “This prosecution system is under the provincial government, which is supposed to introduce legal reforms and strengthen it.”
The minister said the KP government had been “unable to form a system to prosecute terrorists in its 12 and a half years in power.”
Continuing his accusations, he said: “The border is being guarded, but due to the weaknesses and failures of the district administration and the provincial government, infiltration has increased.”
Furthermore, “there is a nexus between politics, terrorism and crime. The CM and his people are involved in drug trafficking in KP and maintain close links with drug traffickers,” Tarar alleged. “In 12 and a half years, whose responsibility was it to prevent drug money from being used to finance terrorism?”
He claimed that the KP government’s performance was “insignificant due to the political-terrorist-crime nexus”, under which “drug smuggling is promoted and drug money is used.”
“They (KP government) do not punish terrorists, and of the more than 10,000 drug trafficking cases between January and August 2025, only 679 cases have been decided,” Tarar added.
“If the KP government knows of such a large drug cartel operating in its territory and cannot take action against it, that means there is a nexus between politics, terrorism and crime,” the accusation reiterated.
Tarar further alleged that “terrorists attack state institutions but not those involved in KP drug trafficking, because by doing so they would lose their source of funding.”
