“What happened at Peshawar university regarding Malala’s book launch, why it happened, I don’t know anything about it,” said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Shireen Mazari as she arrived on campus to speak at a workshop on Wednesday.
Child activist Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala was going to be launched in Peshawar at 10am on Tuesday by the Bacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation in collaboration with the Strengthening Participatory Organisation at the University of Peshawar’s Area Study Centre. The event was cancelled after the provincial government claimed that the venue was not suitable and the police said it could not provide security cover.
Mazari added stopping the launch on campus was an issue for the provincial government and they should deal with it.
However, students of the university gathered outside the hall where Mazari was giving a talk and shouted slogans against the PTI-led government and its coalition partners. The participants and speakers were stuck inside for more than an hour while students from the Pukhtun Students Federation protested. The protesters demanded that the book should be launched on university premises immediately.
Muhammad Taimur, a student, wanted to know how they could let a politician speak at the university when they had refused to have a book launch on campus.
Source: The Express Tribune
