Pakistani President: Claiming rape is a moneymaking concern

From the Washington Post:

Musharraf told The Washington Post last week [the article is from September 24th, RG] that claiming rape had become “a moneymaking concern” in Pakistan. “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,” he said. He later denied making the comments.

Not prepared for the backlash, he is now trying to weasel out:

Faced with the protests over his remarks that rape claims had become a way to make money, Musharraf subsequently told a women’s group that he had been misquoted.

He also told that to CNN and stuck to this story while attending the UN General Assembly, but considering the evidence it is hopeless:

The Post has posted an audio link to that section of the interview on http://www.washingtonpost.com/ . The link includes the full nine-minute discussion with Musharraf on the problem of rape in his country.

…

In the interview, Musharraf referred to the case of Mukhtar Mai, an illiterate 33-year-old-woman who attracted worldwide attention after she spoke publicly about having been gang-raped on the orders of a village council in 2002.
…
The Pakistani government blocked her from traveling to the United States to publicize the case.

And by local standards, Musharraf is a moderate and all-around good guy. Just as this former Prime Minister of Malaysia is a modererate and paragon of sanity, relatively speaking.