Imran Maalik, played by Ijaz Rana, made his first appearance on 25 September 2017. The character and casting details were announced on 18 September 2017. Of his casting, Rana said, "Joining
Hollyoaks has been a pleasure, not only because it's my first on-screen job, but also because joining the
Hollyoaks family has been a heartwarming experience!" It was announced on 7 December 2017 that Imran would be involved in an issue-led storyline when he begins
emotionally and physically abusing Misbah. Imran's abuse stems from feeling isolated from his family, mainly due to Yasmine's heart condition. Misbah will struggle to protect herself and her son, while also managing her job and parenting role. The show worked with
Family Lives, Sefton Women's and Children's Aid, and The Muslim Council of Great Britain while researching the storyline. A spokesperson for Family Lives expressed her delight at working with the show on the storyline as well as at
Hollyoaks for highlighting the issue. Nick Frackleton, the CEO of Sefton Women's and Children's Aid, felt that the show holds a "key role" in addressing these forms of "sensitive" issues and praised them for tackling the plot. Rana found the storyline a surprising development for his character as he initially appeared to be "a very gentle and well-mannered character". The storyline began in January 2018 when after a car crash, Misbah opts to save Yasmine from the car rather than Imran as a lorry headed towards the car. Imran manages to free himself before the lorry hits although he is left feeling bitter and rejected by his mother. Virdi explained that Misbah intended to rescue Yasmine then return to rescue Imran but did not have enough time. The actress felt that Imran would never be able to understand Misbah's decision. In order to create Imran's feeling of neglect, Rana reread every Maalik family scene and noticed that his character was sidelined in every scene; the actor felt that this could enhance his performance. The actor felt that Imran becomes "mentally scarred" by the incident, which leads into the family violence storyline. Sean Glynn, who directed the crash sequence, wanted to make the crash seem realistic so asked the driver of the lorry to drive towards the car that Imran and Yasmine were trapped in. He made this decision so that the actors' performances could be enhanced, which Rana felt he did. On filming the stunt, Rana commented, "The whole experience was very exciting, but tiring towards the end!" Imran's behaviour starts to become a cause for concern when he sells the family heirloom which was precious to Misbah, and when she figures this out after realising it went missing, she immediately confiscates a bike that Imran bought with the money he made from selling the heirloom, and tells Imran he'd get it back when he paid it off. When Misbah takes in
Dirk Savage (
David Kennedy) following him becoming homeless, Imran is consumed with jealousy over their bond, and he spooks Dirk into thinking he is dating Misbah to make him stay away. After learning from Sami that
James Nightingale (
Gregory Finnegan) had framed their father for
embezzlement which led to him committing suicide in prison, Imran is quick to blame Misbah for letting the entire family down by doubting her husband, and in a fit of rage, he slaps her across the face, before he begins to feel guilt the following morning about what he did. He apologises repeatedly to Misbah for his actions, but she insists she needs space for the day. In a bid to make amends, Imran calls a family meeting and buys pizza for everyone, before saying that the family is sometimes flawed in their arguments and shouting, but that Misbah is the one holding them together and that she should be admired for it. Eventually, Misbah finds Imran and forgives him, while he explains that he wanted to say how he was in the wrong that morning, and she comforts him. The following month, Imran learns that his new friend
Oliver Morgan's (Aedan Duckworth) father,
Luke (
Gary Lucy), was
raped over 17 years previously, and is forced to tell Oliver about it when he questions Imran about what he heard while he let it slip in the football changing rooms. When Imran and Yasmine decide to get their own back on James for his treatment of the family, it's decided that a party should be held to get to know the Nightingales better, but when James arrives, he seizes the opportunity to insult everybody there, including Imran by calling him creepy, which infuriates him. When the Maaliks get back, another argument unfolds between Misbah and Imran, this time leading to Imran slapping Misbah again and saying that she doesn't deserve to be respected. When headteacher
Sally St. Claire (
Annie Wallace) approaches Misbah to discuss Imran, it emerges that he has been playing truant, and Misbah becomes suspicious with Imran when he won't hand over his schoolbag. However, several letters intercepted by him fly out, confirming that he has been skipping school. An education welfare officer visits the Maaliks the following day to break the news that Misbah is to be fined for Imran's truancy, which leads her to decide that Imran will be grounded for a week and have his camera confiscated. When he learns this, he flies into a rage with Misbah and smashes plates onto the floor, before attempting to get away from Misbah who tries to drag him back, but ends up having the door swung into her face by Imran, causing a bleed on her eye. The next day, Misbah suffers headaches and loss of vision due to Imran's violence, especially while trying to treat
Dee Dee Hutchinson for her autoimmune encephalitis, and she ends up giving Dee Dee a superfluous amount of morphine. On her break, she finds that Imran has skipped school again, and loses her temper with him when he is asked to clean up some milk on the floor. As soon as Misbah reminds him of the damage his outburst has done, he spitefully shouts and screams at Misbah that he skips school so that she can go to prison, and that he behaves violently because of her decision to leave Imran in the car while the lorry headed for him. Misbah eventually tries to arrange counselling for Imran but is caught in the act by him, and while he reminds her of how much she is ruining the family, she collapses from her head injury and Imran is shocked and panicked. Wracked with guilt, Imran decides to turn himself into the police, which Misbah finds out and intercepts, telling him that his birth was so important as she always wanted a boy. When Imran has an important football match and Misbah promises to come, Yasmine goes into gastric reflux and Misbah therefore can't go because she has to tend to Yasmine, and Imran stays behind waiting for Misbah. Because of this, Imran is made a laughingstock by the team and Imran destroys a piece of Misbah's artwork in anger. She apologises for missing Imran's match, and finds his coach,
Buster Smith (Nathan Sussex), to bribe him to keep Imran on the team. When Imran next goes to football practice, he is laughed at again by his teammates and Oliver as they announce that he has been made captain by Buster. Once he gets home, Imran rants at Misbah for being made a laughingstock and hurls a trophy that she brought at the wall. Later, Misbah decides to get tough with Imran about his behaviour, and bans him from video games for a week, but as he begins to protest it, she grounds him and asks for his phone and tablet. After some to-ing and fro-ing, Misbah pulls the plug on his games console, causing him to lose all the data. This sends Imran over the edge and he threatens Misbah with a TV remote. As the tension escalates, Misbah slaps Imran in self-defence. The following morning, Misbah apologises repeatedly for hitting him, but since Imran is still angry at Misbah, he storms out of the house and is caught by Sally riding his bike in the village when she thought he was ill from glandular fever, but she spots the bruise on his face from the slap and is forced to report Misbah to social services. They turn up the next day at the Maaliks, just as Misbah and Imran were planning a getaway for the family to Disneyland. Misbah comes under pressure from the social worker and as soon as Sami gets tough, she admits that she hit Imran, but because of his rebellious behaviour. Sami is furious and disgusted with Misbah for what she did, and warns her that he will be watching her closely. Imran soon learns that there will be a football trip to Barcelona and announces it to Misbah, but is finited to find out that they can't afford the deposit. Imran winds Misbah up when she catches him using her credit card to pay for the deposit himself, but soon lets him use the card to buy new football boots, but Imran succumbs to peer pressure from Oliver, who convinces him to buy alcohol. Whilst buying the alcohol, they are caught in the act by
Simone Loveday (
Jacqueline Boatswain) who brings Imran home and tells him off, leading to Misbah having to ground Imran for his safety, but when Imran throws a tantrum about it, Misbah cancels the trip. After finding out that Buster got involved, Imran's anger escalates even more, and he goes as far as throwing a hot cup of tea over Misbah's arm, which is witnessed by a shocked Yasmine just as she walks through the door. Misbah breaks down in front of Yasmine as Imran storms off. The following morning, Misbah's sister Kameela comes to visit, but because of her judgmental attitude, the family try to dodge her questions but Yasmine nearly brings up Imran's violence and the secret of Imran trying to buy alcohol comes out in the process. Kameela is quick to criticise Misbah for being too liberal with her children, and a fight breaks out with Misbah forcing Kameela to leave because of her constant judging. Yasmine tells Imran that she saw the attack, and he runs off. When Yasmine confronts Imran further about his actions, he sees red and pushes her to the ground, leading Yasmine to declare her hatred of Imran, and a heart to heart with Misbah makes her tell Yasmine that Imran has been rebellious and violent ever since the car crash. Determined to fix her relationship with Imran, Misbah goes to Buster and begs for Imran to be taken to Barcelona, which he goes ahead with. Imran is delighted and hugs Misbah, leaving Yasmine disgusted and jealous with Misbah for rewarding Imran's violent behaviour, and when she confronts Misbah about it, she snaps at Yasmine that she has had more attention than Imran because of her heart condition and that she should be a little more respectful. After a week, Imran returns feeling confident about himself, but when Oliver wants a place on the team again having been kicked off by Buster for buying the alcohol, Buster decides to play Oliver and Imran against each other to determine who gets the final spot. Sadly, Imran suffers a leg injury from a strong tackle that Oliver does, causing him to be on the bench for a while, and for Oliver to be back on the team. Misbah finds Imran in a bad mood at home just as they are about to celebrate Imran's homecoming, and he has a meltdown about his injury and being kicked off the team, which builds up to more anger, and he throws a football boot at a china lamp, breaking it. Weeks later, Imran gets to know autistic girl
Brooke Hathaway (
Tylan Grant), who Oliver takes a liking to as well, leading both boys to ask her out on a date and for her to accept both. Imran takes a bunch of flowers for Brooke, and she chooses Imran to see. However, Imran sees that Brooke hasn't responded to his messages, and Misbah tries to reassure him. However Oliver appears and begins to joke about Imran's misery over Brooke, winding him up to such an extent that he punches Oliver in the face, right in front of a shocked Misbah. Some time later, Imran and Brooke go on a couple of dates, but the latter one happens to be a disaster when Brooke suffers a sensory overload from the smell of Imran's aftershave. This leads Brooke to run away and in the process, cut her head open. Misbah sees the cut on Brooke's head and immediately jumps to conclusions that Imran was responsible. Imran is so infuriated by his mother thinking this that he lashes out at Misbah again, this time twisting her arm into a Chinese-burn sensation and saying she deserves it. Misbah eventually decides to go to a doctor about her ordeal, but ends up covering for him again by saying that he is skipping school. She is prescribed some anti-anxiety pills. Yasmine sees that Misbah is acting strangely, and she finds out that Imran is still hitting Misbah, so she becomes determined to sort it out. She sneaks Misbah's pills and mixes them into Imran's soup for him to eat. The next day Imran wakes up feeling weird, unaware that Yasmine drugged him. This causes Imran's behaviour to improve to such an extent that Misbah is convinced that his anger is gone, making her decide to throw away her pills, but not before Yasmine sneaks them again. Kameela soon visits the Maaliks again for lunch. At this point, Imran and Brooke are already an item, and have arranged to see each other for lunch, but unfortunately for Imran the lunch with Kameela has clashed with his and Brooke's meeting, so as a compromise Brooke joins the family. Kameela is indifferent to the fact that Imran has a girlfriend, and lays into Sami for setting James up for murder, before she sees Brooke writing in her diary during lunch and wrongly accusing her of copying the conversation word for word. Imran immediately jumps to Brooke's defense, saying Kameela is the worst when it comes to judgement, and Misbah tells Imran to stop throwing tantrums. Brooke runs out in the heat of the argument, despite protests from Imran. As Kameela leaves and berates Misbah for her family being such a shambles, Imran is trying to talk Brooke round, before telling Misbah that she ruined his relationship with Brooke. Yasmine breaks up the argument between Misbah and Imran, and before he can hit anyone, he slams his fist onto the table in anger, which Sami later sees and decides that Imran should be checked in hospital. However, after the check up, it is found out that there are traces of drugs in Imran's system, which makes Yasmine panic, and Misbah as well since she is covering for Yasmine, having just been suspended from her job for wrongly administering drugs. The following day the truth comes out when Imran is practicing boxing as a means of dealing with his anger, when Imran sees a pack of pills fall out of Yasmine's handbag. He quickly realises that Yasmine was drugging him the whole time, and angrily punches Yasmine in the stomach with a boxing glove, causing a massive bruise, which she is forced to keep quiet about by Imran otherwise he will hurt her again. ==Sami Maalik==