A special court in Peshawar Wednesday (today) rejected bail application of the National Geographic’s famed green-eyed ‘Sharbat Gula’ in the fake identity card case.
The court rejected her bail plea after hearing arguments from both the sides.
The special judge, Immigration Farah Jamshed, had reserved the judgment on the bail petition for today after lawyers and public prosecutor arguments. During the hearing the petitioner’s lawyers Abdul Latif Afridi and Mubashar Nazar submitted before the court that the FIA arrested the Afghan woman when she was preparing to leave for the homeland.
The lawyers submitted that there was no complaint against her about her illegal stay in Pakistan. They claimed the FIA raided her house and arrested her without fulfilling the legal procedure as there should be a complaint first in such cases.
The lawyers submitted that the government had already extended voluntary return of the Afghan refugees till October 31. They said the government had asked Afghan nationals to return Pakistani CNICs as they would not be charged for that.
They pointed out that the FIA raided and arrested her before the expiry date for the return of CNIC, which is against the government decision. The lawyers submitted that she was a Hepatitis-C patient, had suffered from high blood pressure problem and needed proper treatment.
Furthermore, the lawyers argued that she is a mother of four children and they depended on her as her husband had died some four years ago. The lawyers prayed the court to issue her release order on bail.
However, the public prosecutor opposed the release of the Afghan woman. He stated that she was charged with having Pakistani CNIC.
Gula – an Afghan refugee – gained worldwide fame in 1984 after war photographer Steve McCurry’s photograph of her was published on the cover of National Geographic.
The haunting image of Sharbat Gula, taken in a Pakistan refugee camp by photographer Steve McCurry in the 1980s, became the most famous cover image in the National Geographic magazine’s history.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Gula last week (Wednesday) for living in the country on fraudulent identity papers following a two-year investigation on her and her husband, who has absconded.
“I think I will have to review this case because she is a woman and we should see it from a humanitarian angle,” Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a press conference Sunday.
“But if we withdraw charges against her, deport her or give her a temporary visa to leave Pakistan, then we will have to take back cases against the officials who issued her fake ID card, they are real culprits and I do not want to let them off the hook in any manner,” he said.
“As a first step the FIA should arrange her bail as soon as possible so that she should get of jail,” Khan added.
Investigators, who have uncovered thousands of fraud cases over the last decade, launched a probe into her application shortly after she procured the identity card.
Officials say she applied for a Pakistani identity card in Peshawar in April 2014, using the name Sharbat Bibi.
The photo attached to her application featured the same piercing green eyes seen in McCurry’s famous image, only older.
Officials say the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) has so far re-verified 91 million ID cards and detected 60,675 fraudulent cards.
Her arrest highlights the desperate measures many Afghans are willing to take to avoid returning to their war-torn homeland as Pakistan cracks down on undocumented foreigners.
Pakistan has for decades provided the safe haven for millions of Afghans who fled their country after the Soviet invasion of 1979.
The country hosts 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, according to UNHCR, making it the third-largest refugee hosting nation in the world.
The agency also estimates a further one million unregistered refugees are in the country.
This is so shameful.
Please, Please, let Sharbat Gul go. She is a Pakistani woman whose love for Pakistan is proved by the fact that she, despite being a poor woman, gave all her savings as a bribe to some Pakistani official to become a Pakistani legally.
I love you Sharbat Gul. You are my sister and I would do anything to make you safe from the haters. You are welcome to live in Punjab. If you want to live in Punjab I will give you a part of my lot.
Sincerely,
A Punjabi Pakistani.
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