Ayesha Gulalai Wazir () is a

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

politician who was a former Member of the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly of Pakistan, also referred to as ''Aiwān-ē-Zairīñ'', is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, with the upper house being the Senate of Pakistan, Senate. As of 2023, the National Assem ...

from 2013 to May 2018.

Early life and education

Ayesha Gulalai was born in FR Bannu Domel wazir and received her M.Phil degree in Islamic Studies with Major in Comparative Religion from the University of Peshawar. After graduating, she briefly worked as a journalist at English Daily The News International. She also remained the chairperson of Tribal Union of Journalists and information secretary of FATA Reforms Committee. 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 government imposed restrictions on the ...

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

Federally Administered Tribal Areas The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 through the ...

. She also has been a member of the

All Pakistan Muslim League All Pakistan Muslim League (Urdu: ; APML) was 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 Karachi, Pakistan. The El ...

(APML). It was reported that PPPP was considering to give her a party ticket in the 2008 Pakistani general election to run for the seat of National Assembly, but she could not compete due to the restriction on the issue of age. In 2012, she joined

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is a political party in Pakistan established in 1996 by cricketer and politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The party is led by Gohar Ali Khan since late 2023. ...

(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 the

2013 Pakistani general election General elections were held in Pakistan on Saturday 11 May 2013 to elect the members of the List of members of the 14th National Assembly of Pakistan, 14th National Assembly of Pakistan, National Assembly and the four Subdivisions of Pakistan, Pr ...

. She became the first-ever female Member of the National Assembly from FATA as well one of the youngest members 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 (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...

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 an electoral sign to PTI-G. The party supports presidential form of democracy. For the

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

, PTI-G gave tickets to four

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

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), Constituency NA-161 (Lodhran-II) and from Constituency NA-231 (Sujawal) in

but was unsuccessful and lost from all four seats. In May 2019, Gulalai asked Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to merge his party (PPP) with PTI-G as she thought it had already been reduced to one province. In the 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. On 25 May 2023, she joined PML-Q in a press conference.

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 politicians University of Peshawar alumni Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNAs 21st-century Pakistani women politicians Pashtun politicians