EDITORIAL: Violence against Women
By the Editor

AIRING his explicit perceptions, President Gen Pervez Musharraf has taken strong exception to Pakistan’s criticism on the issue of violence against women and castigated the women’s rights and human rights NGOs for demonizing the country’s image abroad by washing dirty linen in public.

He would not allow them to do it, he said while addressing the opening session of the two-day inter-regional conference on violence against women.

Violence against women is deplorable and is certainly not condonable. It’s, however, a worldwide phenomenon and Pakistan is not the only country where incidents of excesses against women sometimes occur.

Pakistan is obviously being singled out for demonizing on this count with a motive. And the irony is that some Pakistani NGOs have joined hands with the vested interests abroad to tarnish their own country’s image.

President Musharraf’s expression of anguish at the conference in this connection was, therefore, fully justified.

Virtually, it's a sinister plan of Pakistan bashing through vicious propaganda by exploiting issues of human rights and women’s rights and through Pakistan’s equation with terrorism.

The issue of alleged nuclear proliferation, though not condonable, was also overblown by the West and a section of the country’s Press with a purpose.

Foreign funded NGOs in the country are seemingly dancing to the tunes of their sponsors and are indulging in undue projection of the issue of violence against women.

Such NGOs are, in fact, more harmful to Pakistan than the religious seminaries.

The foreign funded NGOs have apparently blinded themselves to women’s rights in occupied Kashmir where Indian occupation forces are inflicting perpetual indignity on the Kashmiri women.

We have persistently advocated that all foreign funded NGOs should be disciplined.

If religious seminaries’ sources of income are necessary to be probed, it’s equally important to look into the NGOs funds.

It’s, however, important that overreaction to the criticism for violence against women should be avoided especially at the higher level.

True that the persistent anti-Pakistan campaign in this connection is meant to water down President Musharraf’s efforts to project the country’s soft image at the international level, yet it’s pertinent to comprehend the sinister plan to keep it on the hook through such demonizing propaganda.

While it’s imperative to counter the campaign effectively, there is no reason to be panicky or agitated.● 

 -  Mumtaz Hamid Rao
www.MumtazRao.net