FURY OVER KHAN BAN ON PEACE HEROINE
RIGHTS ACTIVIST BARRED FROM TRAVELLING
MSPs urge U-turn by Pakistani PM Politicians have urged Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan to lift a travel ban on a woman who helped the Sunday Mail expose Islamic schools linked to the Taliban.
Gulalai Ismail runs a human rights group called Aware Girls who try to prevent youngsters being recruited by terrorists.
She has won a number of major awards and travels widely to speak on peace and countering terrorism, including visits to Scotland.
But Pakistan’s new government, led by former cricketer Khan, has banned Gulalai from travelling abroad.
She was detained at Islamabad Airport last week on return from London and placed on Pakistan’s exit control list.
In 2015, Gulalai assisted the Sunday Mail in exposing madrasas linked to extremists during our investigation into Is la mist terrorism in northwest Pakistan.
She also arranged interviews with bereaved families who lost children when the Pakistan Taliban massacred 132 schoolchildren in Peshawar in December 2014.
Gulalai was 16 when she founded Aware Girls in 2002 with her younger sister Saba. Both women have been the target of hate campaigns and death threats due to their work.
They have trained hundreds of activists for a network called Seeds of Peace, which aims to prevent people being radicalised for jihad and suicide bombings.
Gulalai visited Scotland in May and spoke at a Scottish Parliament event. Politicians who attended included Kenneth Gibson MSP, who has written to Khan asking for the travel ban to be lifted.
He has also asked Scotland’s Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf to raise the issue with Pakistan’s government.
Gibson said: “Gulalai is a brave and compelling speaker with a determination to improve human rights in Pakistan.
“One would have thought that the new Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, would want to present a fresh and positive new image to the world of a Pakistan striving to improve human rights and individual freedoms under his leadership – so this ban is deeply disappointing.
“Banning potential critics who love their country and simply want to make it a better place for al l Pakistani citizens is not the way forward.
“I urge Mr Khan’s government to rescind this ban and allow Gulalai to engage with human rights activists a cros s t he world. I’ve written to the Pakistani prime minister seeking an overturning of this ban.” Bill Kidd MSP, who also attended the event, said: “I’m shocked by this ban on Gulalai travelling abroad. “She is an inspiring speaker, as we heard in the Scottish Parliament this summer, and she’s a great credit to Pakistan internationally as her human rights and peace awards testify. “I call on Pakistan’s prime minister to lift this unwarranted ban.” Rabia Mehmood, of Amnesty International, added: “Gulalai must be immediately and unconditionally released.” Gulalai is a supporter of the nonviolent Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), who have been campaigning across Pakistan against enforced disappearances, extra- judicial executions and discrimination against the count r y’s Pashtun ethnic minority. Authorities have banned peaceful ral l ies by the PTM and some of their leading members have been detained. The Pakistan Embassy in London did not respond to our request for a comment.