FOR all its talk of transparency, this government’s ways of reaching decisions are murky and mysterious. Rarely does one hand know what the other is doing.

Consider the current self-created crisis to do with the unfortunate Mukhtaran Mai. Here is a victim of our backward tribal and feudal culture who breaks the mould and in an act of awe-inspiring courage, takes on her rapists and the Pakistani establishment. When the news of her gang-rape breaks (in the foreign media to start with), there is a hue and cry. To his credit, Musharraf intervenes and has the rapists arrested and tried. He also sanctions some monetary relief and police protection for the victim.

So far so good. But this is where things go dreadfully and inexplicably wrong. After the rapists are found guilty and sentenced to death by a lower court, the Lahore High Court decides that five of the six accused are not guilty, and releases them. The government appeals to the Supreme Court which announces it will take up the case after its summer vacation.

At this point, an Asian-American women’s group (ANAA) invites Mukhtaran Mai to New York to participate in a seminar on rape. As soon as she applies for a U.S. visa, the establishment’s collective wisdom, such as it is, goes off on holiday. Mukhtaran is placed on the infamous Exit Control List, and placed under virtual house arrest. Defending this decision, Ms Nelofer Bakhtiar, adviser to the PM on women’s development, says on the floor of the House: “We do not want to expose our wounds to the international community. We do not want to wash our dirty linen in public.”

Perhaps she is unaware that things like TV, satellite dishes and the Internet spread news around the globe at warp speed. In fact, by stopping her from travelling, the government has ensured far worse publicity than anything that would have been generated by her presence in New York.

If Ms Bakhtiar is in any doubt about the impact placing Mukhtaran on the ECL has had abroad, here is Nicholas Kristof, the American columnist, in his New York Times op-ed column on June 14:

“Even if Ms Mukhtaran were released, airports have been alerted to bar her from leaving the country. According to Dawn... the government took this step ‘fearing that she might malign Pakistan’s image’. Excuse me, but Ms Mukhtaran, a symbol of courage and altruism, is the best hope for Pakistan’s image....”

If she still does not comprehend the magnitude of the blunder she and her government has committed, here is Declan Walsh, writing in the Guardian on the same day:

“President Pervez Musharraf is particularly keen on promoting a ‘soft’ image of Pakistan abroad as proof that his policy of ‘enlightened moderation’ is succeeding... This obsession with external image took a sinister turn last weekend when the government placed Mukhtaran Bibi on the notorious ECL... The move is shocking because Mukhtaran Mai is a genuine Pakistani heroine...”

Going one step further than Ms Bakhtiar in justifying this action, Dr Shahzad Waseem, minister of state for interior, accuses NGOs of exploiting the case. Launching into oratorical flight, he compares critics with “vultures, crows and eagles.” Perhaps he, too, should be reunited with his village.

In all this name-calling and mud-slinging, Mr Shaukat Aziz’s response has been oddly muted. Apart from speaking to the victim on the telephone, his spokesman has merely announced that the prime minister has ‘ordered an inquiry into how Mukhtaran Mai’s name was placed on the ECL.’ Surely the PM could have done more. Like immediately removing her from this odious list, perhaps? Or letting her travel to New York as she had planned? The belated announcement that her name has been removed from the ECL days later is too little, too late. And by seizing her passport, the government has ensured that she cannot travel abroad.

Shaukat Aziz really ought to know better. He is ostensibly a sophisticated man who knows how the media works abroad. He should also realize that one incident like this one completely undermines his and Musharraf’s efforts to lure foreign investors to Pakistan. The New York Times and the Guardian are heavyweight newspapers that are widely read and respected. The president and the prime minister are prone to speaking glibly of security and moderation to reporters on their frequent trips abroad. But these words are made meaningless when the might of the Pakistani state is ranged against a single brave, illiterate woman who has been the victim of a monstrous crime.

Apart from the rapists and the victim, there is the other question of the village council that has gone largely unaddressed. Who gave these elders the authority to sanction such a vile punishment for a crime allegedly committed by Mukhtaran’s 12-year-old brother? Surely criminal proceedings should and must be brought against them for their part in the whole affair. Unless the government locks them up as well, this kind of kangaroo court will continue inflicting similarly barbarous sentences on others across our benighted country. The reason we are discussing this today is that one woman dared to speak out and confront her rapists. How many other similar crimes go unreported and unpunished is anybody’s guess, but must run into the thousands every year. Rapes occur in other countries as well, but elsewhere, the authorities do their best to bring the culprit to justice. Here, as the actions of the government have just shown, the first impulse is to brush such incidents under the carpet.

And not just the government: families and communities are shamed if one of their daughters has been raped, and do their best to cover up the crime.

In this scenario, it is especially creditable that Mukhtaran Mai had the guts to fight the system and win.

A recent debate in the Senate was particularly revealing of our attitude towards rape. Senator Kulsoom Parveen is reported in this newspaper as stating that ‘cases like those of Dr Shazia [the lady doctor raped in Sui a few months ago] and Mukhtaran Mai should not be highlighted’. She went on to advise that “Mukhtaran Mai should seek justice from Allah.” And if this was not enough wisdom from the lady for one day, she pronounced: “Mukhtaran Mai, being an eastern woman, should not go abroad.”

I wonder if her response would have been the same had somebody close to her been subjected to the same treatment that Mukhtaran Mai was.