ISLAMABAD, June 12: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has asked the government to remove, within 48 hours, the name of Mukhtaran Mai from the Exit Control List (ECL) and allow her to move freely in and outside the country. Chairperson HRCP Asma Jehangir and representatives of some other NGOs gave this deadline at a joint press conference here on Sunday. Mukhtaran Mai also addressed the press conference on telephone from her village.

They said Mukhtaran Mai had been under house arrest ever since her name was put on ECL. “This move of the government is beyond understanding of a common man because normally names of criminals are put on ECL while Mukhtaran herself is a victim of gang rape”, they said.

Ms Asma Jehangir said that the government should clear its position whether it had placed Mukhtaran under house arrest or not, otherwise a team of HRCP and other NGOs would visit Mukhtaran at her house in Meeranwali and find out what exactly was happening there.

While accusing the government of mopping up rape cases, she said that first victim of Sui rape case Dr Shazia was threatened and compelled to leave the country and now the government was harassing Mukhtaran Mai in order to support and protect the accused because they belong to feudal system.

She said the country’s criminal justice system had collapsed and the state was not in a position to support victims of crimes, rather it served as a mediator for reconciliation between victims, of even gang rape which is not a compoundable offence, and powerful criminals.

Mukhtaran Mai addressed in Seraiki and her speech was translated by Farzana Bari of Pattan Development Organisation. She said her 12-member family was not allowed to move outside the village while she was not allowed to even cross her own doorstep. She said she needed to meet her lawyers who were pursuing her appeal in the Supreme Court but police did not allow her to move outside on the pretext that her life was in danger.

“I don’t know whether the police are for my protection or keeping me under house arrest. I know I need help of police but I also need to go out for various works”, she added.

Mukhtaran Mai said on June 9 she wanted to go out of the village to meet her lawyers in Lahore but was asked by the DSP to first seek permission from the SP. She said when she contacted the SP he told her that he would allow her after talking to the DIG. Later the SP gave her the permission and she left for Lahore but on her way she was stopped at the outskirt of the village by a DSP and asked to return home because a secret agency had instructed the police not to allow her leave home.

Masood Haider adds from New York: By placing gang-rape victim Mukhtaran Mai on ECL, the Pakistan government has demonstrated a callous disregard for her sufferings, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said here.

In a statement the New York-based group said that it was “preposterous that while Mukhtaran Mai’s alleged rapists had had their release ordered, she had been placed on Pakistan’s infamous ECL. “If the purpose is to ‘protect’ Pakistan’s image by restricting Mai’s freedom of movement, the attempt has backfired”, the HRW added.

The HRW said “Mai’s rape and subsequent legal confusion proved that Pakistani has failed to be an effective guarantor of basic security and justice.”

Members of Asian-American Network Against Abuse of human rights also expressed concern over the “virtual house arrest” of Mukhtaran Mai.