An additional district and sessions court on Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for activist Gulali Ismail in a case related to maligning national institutions and conducting anti-state activities.
The court order suggested that if the suspect does not appear before the court on Oct 21, she could be declared as proclaimed offender as the investigation process starts.
According to the reports, the activist mysteriously escaped from Pakistan after her passport was confiscated. However, momentarily she seeking political asylum in the United States.
Earlier this year, the Islamabad High Court, while hearing her petition, directed the interior ministry to remove her name from the Exit Control List (ECL).
However, the interior ministry was allowed to take appropriate action against her, including the confiscation of her passport, based on the recommendations by the Inter-Services Intelligence.
In November last year, the IHC was informed that the ISI recommended putting her name on the ECL for her alleged involvement in anti-state activities abroad.
In her petition, she sought the retrieval of her passport and travel documents which the Federal Investigation Agency had confiscated upon her arrival in Pakistan on Oct 12 during her detention at the FIA’s office in Islamabad’s Sector G-13.
According to the petition, Gulali is the chairperson of non-governmental organisation “Aware Girls” and has received national and international acclaim for her work on empowering Pakistani women.
The petition said that the FIA had on Oct 12 detained her when she returned from the UK in connection with her alleged association with the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement and for allegedly “delivering anti-state speeches”.
She maintained 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.
She requested the court to order the removal of her name from the ECL and return her passport.
