An event in north-west Pakistan to launch activist Malala Yousafzai’s memoir was cancelled after pressure from local officials, organisers say.
Tuesday’s book launch in Peshawar could not go ahead after “direct intervention by the provincial government”, Dr Khadim Hussain told BBC Urdu. Police and provincial officials said it was halted over security concerns.
But Imran Khan, whose PTI party runs the province, said he was at a loss to understand the decision.
On Tuesday morning the former cricketer tweeted: “am at a loss 2 understand why Malala’s book launch stopped in Peshawar. PTI believes in freedom of speech/debate, not censorship of ideas”.
Mr Khan’s PTI party heads the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of which Peshawar is the capital.
Malala Yousafzai was 14 years old when she was shot in the head by the Taliban in the north-western Swat valley in October 2012 because of her campaign to promote girls’ education.
She and her family now live in the British city of Birmingham where she has been receiving treatment. She was not expected to attend the launch.
Malala has described the memoir, I am Malala, as her own story – and that of millions of others denied the chance to go to school.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
