President General Pervez Musharraf may be regretting the remarks he made on the Mukhtara Mai rape case in the course of his interview with the Washington Post, published last Tuesday, though he told his interviewer that he had no regrets about how he handled the incident.
During the interview, he reiterated his usual assertions that Mukhtara Mai had come under the sway of organisations determined to harm Pakistan's image, and that he did not think that "Pakistan should be singled out when the curse is everywhere in the world." To some, these remarks, especially the bit about NGOs wanting to harm Pakistan's image, would be objectionable enough.
But then he went on to make the surprising statement: "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." These remarks have caused a general outrage at home and abroad, prompting Canadian Prime Minister, Paul Martin, to openly express his indignation at a UN press conference.
He said he had told General Musharraf that "comments such as that are not acceptable and that violence against women is also a blight that besmirches all humanity." General Musharraf, of course, has grasped the gravity of the reaction, and has distanced himself from the remarks as reported by the newspaper.
But the damage has been done, and the derogatory comments he is alleged to have made about the victims of rape will continue to haunt him for quite sometime to come. Clearly, he has ended up achieving exactly the opposite of what he had set out to achieve when, sometime ago, he denied permission to Mukhtara Mai to travel to New York to participate in a seminar there.
Or when he says that some organisations are out to besmirch the image of Pakistan by singling it out for criticism on account of the crime of rape. Indeed, this crime is prevalent everywhere. But it attracts international attention if there is a perception that the victims are not getting justice.
The President surely did not promote his case when he tried to trivialise the ordeal of rape victims by suggesting that some women in this country would be willing to subject themselves to rape just to get a Canadian visa or some money.
It undermines the very image of the country that, according to him, others are out to tarnish. For, if any women are reduced to resorting to such demeaning methods to get a western country's visa, things must be unbearably bad here.
That cannot be what General Musharraf had meant to convey. To an extent his concern that certain elements are looking for opportunities to do harm to the country's image abroad is well placed.
There are organisations based in the US and some European countries that have a vested interest in portraying Pakistan as a bastion of medieval values in which violence against women and intolerance of divergent opinion is common place.
A good way of dealing with such elements is not to say or do things that help confirm the bad image they seek to create, but to correct it. Which would require a willingness to accept our failings and demonstrate our resolve to change things for the better.