MULTAN, June 22: Mukhtaran, who has been facing untold ordeal ever since a village jury left her at the mercy of rapists, has claimed that the government has hinted at returning her passport. Talking to Dawn from her native Meerwala village on Wednesday, she said Prime Minister’s adviser Nilofer Bakhtiar had contacted her by telephone and told her that the government could send her passport through the postal service.

Mukhtaran, who is also known at her village as Mukhtar Mai, however, said she had told the PM’s adviser that she would herself collect the passport from Islamabad after a few days as she was scheduled to visit the federal capital on June 27 when the Supreme Court was taking up her appeal against the acquittal of her ‘perpetrators’ by the Lahore High Court’s Multan bench.

She said the passport could be lost while coming through the postal service. The government would claim that it had sent the passport while it might not reach her in Meerwala, she said with a smile on her face.

It may be added here that the federal government had reportedly confiscated Mukhtaran’s passport after removing her name from the Exit Control List. She was invited by an America-based human rights group — ANAA (Asian American Network) which works against abuse of women — to address a number of symposiums being organized on women rights in various cities of the US.

The other personalities invited from Pakistan were Abid Hasan Minto, Liaquat Baloch and Anees Haroon. But, the government had clamped a ban only on Mukhtar Mai’s travelling abroad.

During his recent visit to Australia and New Zealand, President Gen Pervez Musharraf had told journalists in Auckland that it was he who had ordered a ban on Mukhtaran’s foreign tour. Some international NGOs wanted to malign Pakistan by highlighting her case, he was quoted to have said while justifying the ban.

US Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice and her assistant on South Asian affairs, Christina Rocca, had deplored the restrictions imposed on the international travelling of the gang-rape victim and reportedly urged the Pakistani authorities to ensure her free movement. The Pakistani foreign office, however, denied any foreign pressure regarding the issue.

When contacted, PM’s adviser Nilofer Bakhtiar said she could not commit anything about the (Mukhtaran’s) passport issue because the federal interior ministry was dealing with the matter.

What I have said to Mukhtaran was that she was free to move anywhere and that her passport was as secure as it could be with her, Ms Bakhtiar averred.

However, Mukhtaran had said she would not travel abroad until the apex court announced its decision on her appeal against acquittal of the accused.

When reminded that state minister Wasim Shahzad had claimed in parliament that Mukhtaran’s name had been put on the ECL to ensure pursuance (of the gang-rape case) on her part, the PM’s adviser said at that time there was some information which had raised doubts as to who would pursue the case after Mukhtaran’s departure.

She said the president would definitely have some discreet information about the conspiracies behind Mukhtaran’s US tour for which he ordered to restrict her movement.

The president, she said, might not think it appropriate to completely uncover the conspiracies right now.