Musharraf under fire for rape remarks

POLITICIANS and rights groups condemned Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for saying in a US newspaper that rape had become a “money-making concern”, with some Pakistani women believing it was a ticket to settling abroad.

Opposition MP Sherry Rehman said: “It was shocking to read that General Musharraf had publicly aired his low opinion of women.”

Human rights activist Kamila Hyat said: “This is a very frivolous way of looking at rape cases in the country.”

Musharraf made the comments in an interview with the Washington Post this week after being asked about the high-profile case of Mukhtaran Mai. She was gang raped on the orders of a tribal council in 2002 as punishment for her brother’s alleged love affair with a woman from another tribe.

Her treatment by the Pakistani government, which tried to bar her from addressing US rights groups about her ordeal, earned the still conservative Islamic country international wrath.

Musharraf told the Washington Post: “You must understand the environment in Pakistan. This has become a money-making concern.

“A lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship, and be a millionaire, get yourself raped.”

Musharraf, a general who seized power in 1999, said on Thursday that he had only been repeating comments he’d heard elsewhere.

“On the issue of violence against women, on the issue of gender equality, Pakistan has done much more than all developing countries, or as much,” he said.

“What I object to is when Pakistan is singled out. This is a global menace.”

Musharraf banned Mai, 33, from addressing US rights groups reportedly because he thought it would give Pakistan bad publicity. He later lifted the ban under pressure from Washington. Mai won worldwide acclaim for her pursuit of justice in June when Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the re-arrest of 13 men linked to her case and suspended their acquittals by lower courts.

Pakistani human rights groups say hundreds of women are killed in the Islamic nation each year in the name of family honour.