President Musharraf, yesterday said that he ordered:

a travel ban on Mukhtar Mai to protect Pakistan’s image abroad. Gen Musharraf said Mukhtar Mai, the victim of a punchayat-ordered gang rape, was being taken to the United States by foreign non-government organisations “to bad-mouth Pakistan” over the “terrible state” of the nation’s women. He said NGOs are “Westernised fringe elements” which “are as bad as the Islamic extremists”.Musharraf said atrocities are perpetrated daily against women in developing nations round the world – “in Kashmir and many other places”.

“I don’t want to project the bad image of Pakistan,” he told the journalists’ club.

“I am a realist. Public relations is the most important thing in the world,” he said, adding that media misperceptions would discourage tourists from travelling to Pakistan.

Words fail me. They truly do.
What is it, about the nature of leaders in the sub continent that allows them to exhibit such callousness, display complete spinelessness, spout such gems and still keep their jobs (and heads)?