Musharraf concern at women image

September 7, 2005 – (BBC) Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said his country should not be singled out for its treatment of women.

His comments came while addressing a conference on violence against women in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

But two of Pakistan's leading women's rights groups have declined to participate in the meeting.

The conference comes in the same week as two separate cases of women alleging that they were raped by police officers in Pakistan.

Representatives of the AGHS and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan say they see no point in being part of what they describe as "a farcical event".

The BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi says both groups have incurred the displeasure of the government for their role in helping bring attention to a series of recent rape cases.

President Musharraf lashed out at rights groups for their role in highlighting the cases outside the country.

"Do it in Pakistan and I am with you. But don't do it abroad; I am not with you," the Associated Press quoted him as saying.

Criticism
Dozens of delegates from around the world are attending the two-day event aimed at addressing the treatment of women in Pakistan and also to bring together those who work with victims of violence.

"Pakistan must not be demonised and singled out as being the only country having this problem... that is not the reality," AFP quoted the president as saying.

Pakistan recently came under intense international criticism for preventing a high-profile rape victim from attending a conference in the United States.

Mukhtar Mai, 33, was raped in 2002, allegedly on the order of a village council, in a case that received worldwide publicity.
The men who were convicted of raping her were released this March, but then ordered back to jail while the Supreme Court hears her appeal against their release.

Another case which attracted widespread attention in Pakistan is that of a woman who alleged that a senior police officer ordered her rape.

The Pakistani government has announced an inquiry into her allegations, but she has said that until the media highlighted her case the authorities did nothing to help her.

In another case this week, a woman accused four policemen of gang-raping her in Rawalpindi. One officer has been arrested and the other three are missing.

Human rights groups say cases like these are just the tip of the iceberg.

They say most women never come forward to say they have been victims of rape or violence and those that do often do not even see their cases going to court.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4222400.stm