Deportation of Nat Geo’s celeb girl to be delayed

The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI)-led Khyber Pakhtunkhaw provincial government has stepped in to delay Nat Geo’s iconic cover girl Sharbat Gula’s deportation.

A special court earlier convicted Sharbat Gula on charges of possessing forged identity papers. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government decided to temporarily halt her deportation on humanitarian grounds. PTI chief Imran Khan urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Pervez Khattak not to deport Sharbat Gula.

The spokesperson for the provincial government, Mushtaq Ghani, said that directives had been forwarded to the home and tribal affairs department, adding that the case needed to be taken up at the federal level. “We will request the federal government to grant her refugee status,” he said, adding that the move would create a better image of the province. A knowledgeable source said that the court had ordered the jail superintendent to make necessary arrangements for her deportation.