Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party Benazir Bhutto has asked President General Pervez Musharraf to tender unconditional apology to the people particularly the women of Pakistan for his most insensitive remarks about the country's mothers and sisters in Washington the other day.
Musharraf's remarks have brought immense shame and anguish and degraded the mothers, sisters and daughters, indeed the whole nation, she said in a statement on Sunday.
Benazir said Musharraf's remarks only proved his low esteem of the women in Pakistan and showed that his claims of enlightened moderation and women emancipation were no more than a ruse to hoodwink the international opinion.
It must have awaken the world to the stark reality of the plight of women in Pakistan who have to fight male prejudices from the lowest to the head of state, she said.
The PPP chairperson complimented the Amnesty International for publicly denouncing General's remarks about women.
The former Prime Minster said that the laws in the country were already skewed against women. She said that after Musharraf's callous remarks the fight for justice for women would become even more difficult in Pakistan. "Now if a woman cried against dreadful crime she will also be accused of making money or seeking foreign visa because the country's referendum-elect President has decreed so," she said.
Benazir also asked the human rights activist, the legal fraternity, women action groups and international community to raise voice and force Musharraf to tender apology.