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 Punjab province, allegedly ordered Mai’s rape as punishment for her 13-year-old brother’s alleged affair with a woman from a higher caste family.
More: chicagotribune.com
Related Travel Information
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
General's travel plans: Bus to Srinagar, flight thereafter
Among the proposals being studied by both India and Pakistan is a suggestion from Islamabad that President Pervez Musharraf take the bus from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar and then fly to Jamshedpur for the India-Pakistan one day international on April 9.
“However, we will have to discuss this with the Indian authorities and nothing is final so far,” sources said.
But the option that Musharraf might ride on the bus linking the two halves of Kashmir, that is scheduled to begin its run on April 7, was among the proposals being considered. This would
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
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
When someone makes a comment – “many Pakistani women used rape as a tool to go abroad”, it is wrong and an insult all women in the world. The statement from Pakistani President Musharraf to Washington Post is deplorable. US Administration has decided to keep mum and tackle the question by avoiding a direct criticism of the Pakistani General.
Pakistani women lack freedom. It is evident from not only what Musharraf says but also what is happening to Pakistani women actresses in the film industry in Lahore, Pakistan. Meera, one of the most famous Pakistani film actresses has decided abandoned
