PESHAWAR (SW): A court in Pakistan has rejected bail plea of iconic Afghan woman Sharbat Gula who has been arrested for forging Pakistani identity card.
The arrest of Sharbagula, one of the world’s most recognized and Afghanistan’s most beloved image had already hurt feelings of all Afghans, and today’s ruling was a further disregard to those feelings and the bilateral people to people relations and the “winning of hearts and minds” that we claim to be important and therefore our aim, Dr. Omar Zakhilwal, Afghan Ambassador in Pakistan said after the court’s ruling.
Sharbat Gula was arrested by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) last month on the charges of illegally possessing a Pakistani computerised national identity card (CNIC). Sharbat Gula; also known as the Afghan Mona Lisa rose to fame when a National Geographic photographer published her mesmerizing picture over three decades ago.
Earlier on Tuesday, Gula’s lawyer told Peshawar High Court that her client was fighting Hepatitis C. On the same day, Afghan ambassador in Islamabad Omar Zakhilwal expressed confidence that Gula would be freed after diplomats met and assured her that she would be acquitted.
Disappointed with the decision, Afghan Ambassador in Islamabad, Omar Zakhilwal said, “At this stage I call on the Honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan, to whom I will also send a formal request, to intervene in this matter and instruct the release of Sharbatgula".
ENDS
