PAKISTAN: Outrage mounted in Pakistan and abroad yesterday over President Pervez Musharraf's comment that many Pakistanis felt that crying rape was an easy way to make money and move to Canada.
Canadian prime minister Paul Martin has already condemned the remarks by President Musharraf, who is in the United States having addressed the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
Amnesty International said President Musharraf should apologise, and newspapers back home decried their leader's attitude.
The president told the Washington Post in an interview published on Tuesday that Pakistan should not be singled out on rape issues as other countries had the same problems.
"You must understand the environment in Pakistan ... 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," the Post quoted him as saying.
Dawn, Pakistan's leading English-language daily, rounded on the president in an editorial headlined "Wrong thing to say".
"If this attitude, of blaming rape and other crimes against women on women themselves and ridiculing NGOs that take up such issues, begins to travel upward from ignorant mullahs and male chauvinists to permeate the higher echelons of the administration, then God help us," it said.
Amnesty International said it was outraged at the remarks by President Musharraf, who is due to address an audience of Pakistani-American women in New York today.
"This callous and insulting statement requires a public apology from President Musharraf to the women of Pakistan and especially to victims of rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence that are rampant with impunity in Pakistan," the group said.
"His statement is an offence to women all over the world."
President Musharraf, according to media reports, told a news conference in New York that he had been expressing a commonly held opinion rather than his own.
Rape is prevalent particularly in rural areas of Pakistan, but local media have recently become more active in following up stories since a notorious gang rape generated massive publicity at home and abroad when the victim spoke out about her ordeal.