PESHAWAR: The Taliban militants\u2019 fear continues to hinder the launch of girls education campaigner Malala book in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.<\/p>\n
The government had stopped the launch of \u2018I am Malala\u2019 the Malala book<.b> in Peshawar two and half months ago in the wake of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan\u2019s threat of attacks against bookshops selling the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d reached the relevant people in Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government for permission to launch the book, but to no avail. PTI chairman Imran Khan had tweeted he was at a loss to understand why the book\u2019s launch had been stopped in Peshawar. However, the PTI government in the province isn\u2019t ready to allow us to launch the book,\u201d Khadim Hussain, director at the Bacha Khan Education Foundation, told Dawn on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Malala book was slated to be launched at the Area Study Centre of the University of Peshawar in January but stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been in contact with University of Peshawar, Abdul Wali Khan University and private universities to hold the launching ceremony on their premises. However, their response is painfully slow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to him, Malala is unfearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to arrange the launch and benefit from Malala\u2019s worldwide recognition as an education and human rights campaigner. The people are getting Malala scholarships, so why our girls and boys should not get their right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Malala shot by the Taliban in her hometown, Swat, in October 2012 had challenged militants and therefore, became a symbol of courage for young generation.<\/p>\n
Mr Hussain said Malala needed respect and acknowledgement at home but the provincial government was opposed to her Malala book launch fearing the Taliban\u2019s attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are asking the government and universities to allow us to launch the book on their campuses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sources at University of Peshawar say the government is not allowing the event to take place.<\/p>\n
They quoted a senior leader of the provincial government as saying first glorifying Malala was not allowed in universities, which were a place of learning, and second, Malala was not \u2018our heroine\u2019 after all.<\/p>\n
The Area Study Centre of the university was slated to host the event.<\/p>\n
Since then, the organisers\u2019 efforts to hold the event on campus have failed.<\/p>\n
The sources said nobody was responding to the requests to hold the function as both bureaucrats and varsities\u2019 vice chancellors didn\u2019t want to anger the provincial government by doing so.<\/p>\n
Mr Hussain said he was awaiting government\u2019s response to several requests for hosting the launch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will hold the launching ceremony at all costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A provincial minister, who wished not to be named, said the government couldn\u2019t put the universities at risk by allowing the launch of Malala book.<\/p>\n
\u201cMilitants can target universities if we continue to showcase their enemy, Malala, as a champion. Therefore, we don\u2019t want to create such a situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The minister said the event should take place in places other than universities.<\/p>\n
He said the launch of Malala book was \u2018purely a political issue\u2019 and should be tackled as such.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the Taliban are not happy with her (Malala\u2019s) popularity, so they could target her supporters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The minister said it had been conveyed to the organisers that a university wasn\u2019t a proper place for such events and that they should hold events, which could benefit students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe organisers shouldn\u2019t draw political gains at the cost of education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n