PESHAWAR - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will write to federal government to temporarily halt deportation of the ailing Afghan woman Sharbat Gula, on humanitarian grounds.

Earlier a court had ordered her deportation to Afghanistan after completing 15-day imprisonment in the case for obtaining fake Pakistani identity card.

Officials said that provincial home department would formally contact the federal government to halt Sharbat Gula’s deportation for the time being on humanitarian basis.

The green-eyed Sharbat Gula, 46, was arrested by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on October 26 last from Nauthia locality in Peshawar for possessing a forged Pakistani identity card.

To prevent Gula from being deported, Adviser to the KP Chief Minister on Information, Mushtaq Ghani has reportedly said that provincial government would request the federal government that instead of deporting, Gula should be granted refugee status, which according to him, would improve Pakistan’s image.

“Yes, the KP home department would take up the matter with Interior Ministry,” officials said. According to the PTI lawmaker Shaukat Yusufzai, Gula would be allowed to live here as she had been suffering from Hepatitis-C and lived entire life here, she would be granted permission to stay on humanitarian grounds. Sharbat Gula, who is called by many as the ‘Afghan Mona Lisa’, is currently under treatment at the Lady Reading Hospital.

The move to stop Gula’s deportation, started a day earlier, after the PTI Chief Imran Khan formally asked the KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak not to deport the Afghan woman.

Khan’s request came hours after a local court in Peshawar ruled that Sharbat Gula be deported to Afghanistan after serving a 15-day jail sentence and paying a fine of Rs 110,000 for holding fake Pakistani documents.

To halt her deportation, the KP government is busy in finding out legal ways, officials said.

The officials further said that it would not be as easy as it looks like. In this case the provincial government has nothing to do with the case of Sharbat Gula because the deportation is being carried out on the orders of the court.

However they said that the Afghan woman could get relief in deportation case, if she challenges it in the apex court.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani would warmly receive Gula upon her arrival to Afghanistan. Besides, he is expected to announce financial assistance and treatment facilities for her.