Why Ayyan Ali, Pakistan's Super-Model, is in Jail

For the last few years, Ayyan Ali was the 'showstopper' everyone waited for at Fashion Pakistan Week. For the last two weeks, Pakistan's most famous model has been in jail.

Ms Ali, 23, was arrested on March 14 at the Islamabad airport on charges of money laundering, according to local media; she has been in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi since then.

Ms Ali was reportedly found carrying $500,000 in her suitcase as she tried to leave the country to fly to Dubai. The legal limit of cash that can be carried out of the country is $10,000.

Ms Ali denies the charge; her lawyer has argued that the model was unaware of these customs rules. Ms Ali's application for bail was dismissed last week.

Meanwhile, Pakistani media have been trying to find out if the model is being treated like the other 4,500 prisoners in the jail.

According to a newspaper report in Pakistan,the supermodel is getting a 'VVIP' treatment inside the jail. "Two female prisoners are appointed to 'serve' her," a senior warden was quoted as saying by The Tribune.

The report notes that she was given a well-furnished room with a TV set, refrigerator, wore a new dress daily and was allowed a special kind of mobile phone that could bypass the prison's jammers.

However, according to a BBC report BBC report , jail authorities have denied giving the model any special facility.

They told BBC, 'She was living in a block with 10 other female prisoners and was allowed to see her family members twice a week, according to jail rules.'

Ms Ali began her career on the catwalk, at the age of 16. In Pakistan, she is one of the industry's best-known faces-from ice cream to mobile phones-she has appeared in almost all advertisements.