‘Imran’s suffering hurts more than my son’s sentence,’ says Hassaan Niazi's mother

A day after a military court sentenced her son to 10 years in prison, Noreen Khan Niazi has said that her brother and former prime minister Imran Khan’s suffering hurts her more than her son’s ordeal.

Noreen’s son and nephew of the incarcerated former premier, Hassaan Khan Niazi, was on Thursday awarded 10 years in jail for his involvement in the May 9 riots. According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), a military court found Hassaan guilty of ransacking Lahore Corps Commander’s residence (Jinnah House).

“My son’s sentence hurts, but Imran Khan’s suffering hurts me even more,” Noreen said in an interview with ABN News following her son’s sentencing. Declaring it “injustice”, she alleged that the sentence “stemmed from personal hatred”.

“If the maximum sentence limit had been more than ten years, then they surely would have awarded that to Hassaan,” Noreen said. She, however, expressed hope that her son among others would be released after the convictions were challenged in the high court.

To a question about the dozens of pending cases against her brother, Noreen accused the judiciary of being compromised.

“The reason behind the frivolous cases on Imran Khan is to force him to leave the country,” she said, alleging that the government had kept her brother in Adiala Jail’s death-row cells. 

To a question about the ongoing negotiations between the government and PTI, she said she only had faith in Allah.

Separately, Hassaan’s father Hafizullah Niazi appeared on Dunya News where he said the state had exploited a blatant lie to sentence his son.

He claimed that his son had told him all about how Jinnah House was already on fire when he reached there on May 9, 2023. “There was chaos everywhere and I just gave a speech there,” Niazi quoted his son as saying.

It is pertinent to note that Hassaan was not the only person who was on Thursday sentenced for his involvement in May 9 riots. According to the military’s media wing, military courts awarded punishments to at least 59 other, including former PTI lawmaker from Lahore, Mian Abad Farooq.

Earlier, military courts had on Saturday awarded sentences to at least 25 others for attacking state installations on May 9, 2023. Scores of PTI supporters and leaders remain undertrial in military as well as anti-terror courts for their involvement in violent protests that broke out following the former premier’s arrest last year.