A gun reform bill has been introduced in Sabika Sheikh's name in the US

'The Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act' calls for guns and ammunition to be licensed and...

In May 2018, a Pakistani exchange student in the US was killed in an unfortunate Texas school shooting.

Sabika Sheikh was studying in the US through an exchange program facilitated by the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) programme.

Shaheera Jalil Albasit, another Full Bright Pakistani student in the US and Sheikh's cousin, just finished her programme but with an accomplishment that required her utmost hard work and resilience.



A bill, The Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing & Registration Act, was recently introduced in the US. The historic bill prescribes a complete process for guns and ammunition in the US to be licensed and registered.

[fbpost link="https://www.facebook.com/shaheerajalilalbasit/posts/10156044533966805"]

"I came to US in 2017 as Fulbright scholar from Pakistan. One day before my arrival, arrived my sweetest, most humble cousin Sabika. We both were exchange students," she wrote in a lengthy post on Facebook before she made her way back to Pakistan. "In 2017, when I took my first touristy photo in front of US Capitol Building, I did not know that one year later this place will become central to everything I would do in this country. Right after I finished my first graduate year, Sabika was brutally murdered at her exchange school."

She then added how after Sheikh's murder, she decided "to get a gun safety legislation introduced for her in US Congress".



Albasit added, "In the last one year, for every one step forward, there were 99 rejections. Especially as someone not from the US, I struggled at the most basic levels. I did not know who to approach, what to ask them, what to say during protest speeches, how to think, what to think. I struggled to understand spoken English and find the right English words to appear smart enough to be taken seriously."

She went on add how things changed for better when in February of this year, she started coordinating with the Office of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee on a comprehensive Gun Reforms Act prepared diligently by Kristina Woods who lost her own sibling to gun violence.

Albasit, along with the right help, finally prepared three bills from the original Act.



"On July 26, 2019, miraculously on the very last working day before my departure from US, I stood in the same building, the US Capitol, alongside 2 Congresswomen, and introduced 'The Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing & Registration Act'," she continued. "I now look toward gun violence prevention groups to ensure that this life-saving bill becomes law."

"In these 436 days since Sabika's shooting, I experienced a bit of the contentious US politics from within," Albasit shared. "From having humbling opportunities to speak at public protests in multiple US cities, to being a small part of one of the most progressive youth-led politics, to hearing from most disenfranchised communities impacted by gun violence, to deliberating with both compassionate and hawkish lawmakers in highest echelons of the United States, I have seen a world."

"With that, my time here is up as I return to my heartland Pakistan. Goodbye America," she concluded.

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