The Pakistan government has lifted a foreign travel ban on the victim of a high profile gang rape, Mukhtar Mai.
But Ms Mai has told the BBC that because her passport has been confiscated, the move is meaningless.
The ban has prevented Ms Mai from taking up an invitation from human rights group Amnesty International to travel to the United States.
Officials had said she had to stay in Pakistan until court cases around the rape were resolved.
But critics said the move was a ploy intended to protect Pakistan’s international image.
More: news.bbc.co.uk
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After a stern protest by the Bush administration, Pakistan yesterday lifted travel restrictions imposed on a Pakistani gang-rape victim, freeing her to visit the United States for a series of high-profile speeches.
Mukhtar Mai earned international renown after she demanded the prosecution of men who had raped her on the orders of a traditional village council in June 2002. According to testimony, the council ordered the rape as punishment after Mai's teenage brother allegedly offended a powerful clan by having an affair with the sister of one of the accused men.
But last Friday, a court ordered the release of 12 men
Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Friday that he ordered a travel ban on the victim of a village council-ordered gang rape to protect Pakistan's image abroad.
Musharraf said Mukhtar Mai, whose rape was ordered to punish her family for her brother's alleged affair with a woman from another family, was being taken to the United States by foreign nongovernment organizations "to bad-mouth Pakistan" over the "terrible state" of the nation's women.
"She was told not to go" to the United States to appear on media there to tell her story, Musharraf told the Auckland Foreign Correspondents' Club.
He said
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday that he has lifted a ban on travel abroad for the victim in a rape case.
Musharraf's statement came one day after Pakistan's Supreme Court overturned the acquittals of 13 men and ordered their re-arrests in the 2002 gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, 33.
"Mukhtar Mai is free to go wherever she pleases, meet whomever she wants and say whatever she pleases," Musharraf said on his Web site.
"While I sincerely regret what Mai had to endure, the government is taking action to remedy it," Musharraf said.
A council of elders in Meerwala, her home village in eastern
The Pakistan government has confirmed that a victim of a notorious gang rape is on a special list of people who are not allowed to travel abroad.
Mukhtar Mai, raped allegedly on the orders of a tribal council in 2002, has demanded the restrictions be lifted.
"We want her case to be processed and resolved first," junior interior minister Shehzad Wasim said.
On Friday a court ordered that 12 men imprisoned in connection with the case must be released by Monday.
Ms Mai's name suddenly appeared on the "exit control list" earlier this month.
Immigration officers in Karachi say they
Pakistan has assured the United States that gang-rape victim Mukhtaran Mai is free to travel to America, the State Department said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has secured a pledge from Pakistan in this regard, Adam Ereli, State Department deputy spokesman told reporters yesterday.
"Secretary (of State Condoleeza) Rice spoke with Foreign Minister Kasuri on Thursday. Secretary Rice made it clear that Ms Mai was welcome to come to the United States at any time (she has been invited by Amnesty to come her and tell her sad story) and that we were looking to the Government of Pakistan to ensure
