Ayesha Gulalai Wazir ( ur, ) is a Pakistani politician who was a former Member of the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly ( ur, , translit=Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, , or ur, قومی اسمبلی, Romanization, romanized: ''Qaumi Assembly'') is the lower house, lower legislative house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which al ...

from 2013 to May 2018.

Early life and education

Ayesha Gulalai was born in Bannu domel and received her master's degree from the

University of Peshawar The University of Peshawar ( ps, د پېښور پوهنتون; hnd, پشور یونیورسٹی; ur, ; abbreviated UoP; known more popularly as Peshawar University) is a Public university, public research university located in Peshawar, Khy ...

. After graduating, she briefly worked as a journalist, first as a

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...

newscaster at the PTV in Peshawar and later at The News International. She is the sister of Maria Toorpakay.

Political career

Wazir began her political career as a human rights activist from Bannu domel. She was a worker of

Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) is a Pakistani political party and an electoral extension of the Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP). It was created in 2002 by Amin Fahim after Pervez Musharraf's military dictatorship imposed restrictio ...

(PPPP) as coordinator for the women's wing in

Federally Administered Tribal Areas , conventional_long_name = Federally Administered Tribal Areas , nation = Pakistan , subdivision = Autonomous territory , image_flag = Flag of FATA.svg , image_coat = File:Coat of arms ...

. She also has been a member of the

All Pakistan Muslim League All Pakistan Muslim League (Urdu: ; APML) is a political party in Pakistan founded by Pervez Musharraf in 2010. The launching ceremony of the party was held in London, but the central secretariat of APML is located in Islamabad, Pakistan. Hist ...

(APML). It was reported that PPPP was considering to give her a party ticket in

2008 Pakistani general election 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

to run for the seat of National Assembly, but she could not compete due to the age issue. In 2012, she joined

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the thre ...

(PTI) and was nominated as a member of the PTI central committee. Wazir was indirectly elected to the

as a candidate of PTI on a reserved seat for women from the FATA in

2013 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on Saturday 11 May 2013 to elect the members of the 14th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties were the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) led by Nawaz Sharif, t ...

. She became first-ever female Member of the National Assembly from FATA as well one of the youngest member of the parliament. She quit PTI in August 2017, accusing that the party does not guarantee respect and dignity to women. She has blamed

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

for inappropriate text messages sent to her in October, 2013. She also refused to resign from the seat in the National Assembly. In February 2018, she launched her own party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Gulalai) (PTI-G), as a faction of PTI. The election commission of Pakistan allotted the racket as electoral sign to PTI-G. The party supports presidential form of democracy. For

2018 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on Wednesday, 25 July 2018 to elect the members of 15th National Assembly and the four Provincial Assemblies. The three major parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan, the Pakistan Muslim ...

, PTI-G gave tickets to four

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

persons to contest elections. Wazir ran for the seat of the National Assembly as a candidate of PTI-G from Constituency NA-25 (Nowshera-I), Constituency

NA-53 (Islamabad-II) NA-47 (Islamabad-II) () is a constituency for the National Assembly of Pakistan, National Assembly of Pakistan. Area The constituency mostly consists of urban areas of Islamabad in addition to Bhara Kahu. During the 2018 delimitation, this consti ...

, Constituency

NA-161 (Lodhran-II) NA-155 (Lodhran-II) () is a constituency for the National Assembly of Pakistan. It mainly comprises the Lodhran Tehsil along with some areas of the Dunyapur Tehsil. Election 2002 General elections were held on 10 Oct 2002. Nawab Aman Ullah Kha ...

and from Constituency NA-231 (Sujawal) in

but was unsuccessful and lost from all four seats. In May 2019, Gulalai asked

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Bilawal Bhutto Zardari ( ur, بلاول بھٹو زرداری; born 21 September 1988) is a Pakistani politician who is serving as the 37th Minister of Foreign Affairs, in office since 27 April 2022. He became the chairman of Pakistan Peopl ...

to merge his party (PPP) with PTI-G as she thought it had already been reduced to one province. In 2018 General Elections, PTI-G could only secure 4,130 votes in National Assembly and 1,235 in Provincial Assembly. None of the party's candidates were able to win in any constituency.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wazir, Ayesha Gulalai Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Pakistani MNAs 2013–2018 Pakistani political party founders Women members of the National Assembly of Pakistan People from South Waziristan Pashtun women University of Peshawar alumni Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNAs 21st-century Pakistani women politicians