Musharraf's US tour aimed at promoting the image of a moderate Pakistan was marred by the comments made during an interview to three Post reporters, enraging women's groups in the US and drawing a formal protest from Canadian prime minister Paul Martin.
I banned travel by rape victim: Musharraf
But later, in media interviews and an address to a women's group, he denied having made the remarks. The Post quoted a transcript from the tape of the 50-minute interview in which he said, "This has become a moneymaking 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."
"Musharraf made the remarks at the end of a nine- minute discussion on the case of Mukhtar Mai, 33, an illiterate woman who spoke publicly about having been gang-raped on the orders of a village council in 2002," said the Post.
The daily said that during the interview, Musharraf recollected how he had arranged for a visa and for $ 50,000 to be given to Shazia Khalid - a Pakistani doctor who was raped by a masked intruder, allegedly an army officer - so she could leave the country.
Khalid has applied for asylum in Canada. Then he interjected the comments about rape as a moneymaking concern, saying it was a "popular term" in Islamabad.
"It is the easiest way of doing it." Musharraf had said, according to the daily.
Later, the President told a women's group, "Let me say with total sincerity that I never said that, and it has been misquoted. These are not my words, and I would go to the extent of saying I am not so silly and stupid to make comments of this sort."
In an interview Saturday with CNN, Musharraf said the remarks were made by someone else in his presence and not by him. The rape comments, The Post pointed out, were not the main focus of the article published Tuesday, which covered a broad range of topics discussed in a 50-minute interview. But it came in the 12th paragraph of the transcript from the tape recording, the daily added.