An additional district and sessions court on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Gulalai Ismail in a case pertaining to maligning state institutions. Ismail, who was booked over seditious speeches in May, mysteriously escaped from Pakistan after her passport was confiscated and is currently seeking political asylum in the United States. According to the petition, Ismail is the chairperson of a non-governmental organisation (NGO), “Aware Girls”, and has received national and international acclaim for her work on empowering Pakistani women. Ismail argued in her petition that the federal government placed her name on the ECL and the FIA confiscated her passport without giving her an opportunity to defend herself. The protest received prominent coverage from Indian media which used it to back-up its malicious claims of human rights atrocities in Pakistan.

Source: Pakistan Today October 02, 2019 05:37 UTC