March 2019, the court set aside the decision to place her on the ECL as she had not been given an opportunity of a hearing as required by Section 8 of the Passport Act 1974 and directed that her passport be returned to her. The court, however, allowed that her passport might be confiscated at a later date if the correct procedures are followed. On 18 January 2019, a video surfaced in which a 13-year-old boy, Hayat Khan from Khaisor, North Waziristan, said Pakistani security forces had arrested his father and brother, and that his family had been facing harassment due to frequent visits by two security personnel to his home when he was the only male among the females present at home. On 27 January, Ismail visited Khaisor along with five other female PTM activists, Ismat Shahjahan, Bushra Gohar, Jamila Gilani, Sanna Ejaz and Nargis Afsheen Khattak, to express solidarity with Hayat's mother and to also interview the local women about other incidents of sexual harassment. Ismail said that due to the bombing of their homes by the armed forces, "the mental health of women from the tribal areas has deteriorated so much that they cannot endure another day of war.” Ismat Shahjahan added, "[dozens of] women came out of their homes when we visited them, pleaded and cried, and asked us to help them bring their missing sons back. We cried with them." On 6 February 2019, Ismail was arrested outside the National Press Club in Islamabad along with dozens of other PTM activists including Abdullah Nangyal, at an event protesting the murder of Pashtun rights activist Arman Loni. Ismail was shifted to an undisclosed location after her arrest. During the detention, she was kept hungry and thirsty for two days in a cold, dirty room which had a urine-soaked carpet. The arrests received widespread criticism in Pakistan and internationally, including condemnation from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Amnesty International, and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). On 23 May 2019, as Ismail and other activists were protesting in Islamabad against the murder of Farishta Momand – a 10-year-old Pashtun girl who had been abducted in Islamabad, allegedly raped, and then killed with a knife and thrown in a forest where animals ravaged her body – Ismail became the subject of another first information report for allegedly defaming state institutions during the protest rally against Farishta's murder. According to Farishta's