“I am virtually under house arrest and in Meerwala my movement has been restricted to the extent that if I want to go somewhere I have to seek permission,” she said in response to a question.
However, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Women Development Nilofar Bakhtiar, who was present on the occasion, insisted that she was not under house arrest and was free to go anywhere she wanted to.
It was because of the greater security for her that she was facing some problems in moving around, the adviser said.
“Over the past three years, the government has provided security to Mukhtaran Mai which is an unprecedented move. Wherever she goes, a police escort accompanies her,” she said.
Mukhtaran Mai agreed with the adviser that security had been provided to her during the three years, but noted that while she could carry out her social work under police protection in the past, the enhanced security had confined her to her house. Otherwise, she said, she was facing no problem.
Mukhtaran Mai appeared under intense pressure when she told a questioner that “due to my mother’s illness I have postponed my scheduled visit to the US. I will decide later when I can go abroad”.
Ms Bakhtiar said the prime minister had ordered an inquiry into what prompted the authorities to put her (Mukhtaran Mai’s) name on the ECL. “Until the inquiry is completed I don’t want to make any comment.”
“I don’t want to get into speculation about her scheduled visit to the US and the ECL issue,” the adviser said.
She said during the recently-held Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) conference in Islamabad attended by delegations from all over the world, Mukhtaran Mai presided over one of the sessions, and at no point did the government hide her.
The president and the prime minister had personally met Mukhtaran Mai, and the government was extending every possible help to her, Ms Bakhtiar said.
“As far as the decision in her case is concerned, something which it is up to courts, and the ministry is helping her in this regard,” the adviser said.
“She is one of the rare gang-rape victim survivors in the country, and everyone of us should take pride in the way she has fought her battle, and is still fighting to get justice from courts. We want to project her struggle at all forums, as to how a rape victim can survive in our society,” the adviser said.
Dawn reporter adds from Multan: A source privy to Mukhtaran Mai said on Tuesday night that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had spoken to her on phone and assured her that the government would set up the women crisis centre in Meerwala.
According to the source, Mai complained to the prime minister against the treatment being meted out to her by the federal women’s division and some ‘security agencies’. Mr Aziz assured her that she would be sent back to her hometown in a day or two.
The source said that Mukhtaran Mai expressed concern about the health of her mother and requested that she be set free and allowed to look after her. “At this she was allowed to make contact with her family in Meerwala,” the source added.
The source said that Mai was taken to the WCC immediately after her joint press conference with Ms Nilofer Bakhtiar and that six commandos in plainclothes were on guard outside the room where she was lodged with her close aide Naseem Ghizlani.