Attack on Malala Yousafzai was scripted: Pakistan woman lawmaker

Islamabad: A Pakistani woman parliamentarian has claimed that the 2012 Taliban attack on Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai was “scripted”.

Mussarat Ahmadzeb, a member of parliament from Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, said that the entire saga of Malala writing for BBC and later the attack were part of a plan.

“The attack on Malala was scripted way before the incident (in 2012),” she told right-wing Urdu newspaper Ummat in an interview.

Ahmadzeb, who is the daughter-in-law of former ruler of semi-autonomous state of Swat, doubted if any bullet was lodged in Malala’s head.

“She (Malala) was shot in the head but no bullet was found in the Computerised Tomography (CT) scan in Swat. But yes, then the bullet got stuck in her head in CMH (combined military hospital) Peshawar,” she later said in a tweet.

She also alleged that medics involved in the treatment of Malala were given land by the government to build houses. “The medics who did the CT scan along with the doctor who examined her, all were awarded plots by the government,” the PTI lawmaker said.

Ahmadzeb claimed that Malala could not read and write when she was shown as writing stories for BBC as Gul Makai. She alleged that an American lived in the house of Malala for three months to train her for the future role.

It was not immediately clear why the lawmaker was giving the statement attacking Malala and her efforts.

Meanwhile, PTI spokesperson Shafqat Mahmood said that his party had already disowned Mussarat in 2014 along with two other lawmakers for violating party discipline.

“During the protest against election rigging, three MNAs (Members of National Assembly) – Mussarat Ahmadzeb, Gulzar Ahmed and Siraj Muhammad – refused to abide by party laws (and were disowned),” Mahmood told media.

Yousafzai, 19, became a global symbol of the fight for girls education after being shot in the head in October 2012 for opposing Taliban restrictions on female education.

The Pakistani education activist survived the attack and became an advocate for millions of girls denied formal education around the world. In 2013, Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai co-founded the Malala Fund to bring awareness to the social and economic impact of girls education, and to empower girls to demand change.

She became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate in December 2014, sharing the honour with Indian children’s rights and education advocate Kailash Satyarthi.