Sharbat Gula to return home country this week

KABUL and on humanitarian grounds, but the Afghan Consulate in Peshawar said her return to home country was final.

An official from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's home department announced the decision. Gula was reportedly arrested  for possessing a fraudulent Computerised National Identity Card, and being in possession of both Pakistani and Afghan identity documents. Her bail application was rejected by a special immigration court on November 3.

She was ordered to serve a 15-day prison sentence, which she will complete on Wednesday and has to pay 1,10,000 Pakistani rupees in fine. She was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, and was hospitalized while she was in police custody, according to her lawyer.

The woman's photograph, captured by Steve McCurry at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Peshawar in 1984, won international acclaim and was compared to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting. Her image had quickly become symbolic of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani court also asked Gula to return to her home country. However, the KP government has sent a letter to the federal government in Islamabad demanding that she should not be deported. KP chief minister Parvez Khattak had ordered the provision of complete facilities for her treatment.

Afghan Consul General in KP Abdullah Wahid told Pajhwok Afghan News Sharbat Gula would meet one of her relatives on Sunday to make final decision about her return to Afghanistan.

He said Gula’s return to Afghanistan was final but it was not known if she would depart for Afghanistan tomorrow or a few days later.  She would return to her home country during the ongoing week, the diplomat said.

A day earlier, President Ghani while presiding over a Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace, directed the Urban Development Ministry to construct a house for Sharbat Gula.

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