ISLAMABAD, 12 December 2003 — Two scientists at Pakistan’s top nuclear laboratory are being questioned by the country’s intelligence services, officials said yesterday, as the government denied any link to Iran’s nuclear program.
Some newspapers suggested the pair were being questioned over allegations that Pakistan transferred nuclear technology to Iran, while opposition politicians said the men had been detained because of American pressure, calling it a “national insult”.
It was a charge robustly denied by the Foreign Office, which said it was merely a “routine debriefing”, denying any Pakistani links with Iran’s nuclear program.
An intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the scientists, Mohammad Farooq and Yasin Chohan, were picked up earlier this month from the city of Rawalpindi, and were being questioned by intelligence agencies.
Both men worked for Khan Research Laboratories, headed by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb. Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said the men were undergoing “debriefing sessions”.
“It is part of routine personal dependability and debriefing sessions carried out in such sensitive departments,” he told reporters. “It has nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program.”
Diplomats in Vienna told Reuters last month the International Atomic Energy Agency was investigating a possible link between Pakistan and Iran after Tehran acknowledged using centrifuge designs that appear identical to ones used in Islamabad’s quest for an atomic bomb.
“That is a matter between Iran and IAEA,” Masood Khan said. “It is Pakistan’s consistent policy that it does not export sensitive technology or information to any country in the world.”
Mohammad Ali, son of scientist Farooq, said reports his father had been arrested or detained were incorrect. “He is working with a defense-related department and such interrogations do take place with them,” he said. “We are not worried for his safety. He phoned us the day before yesterday and we have spoken to him before as well.”
But the development drew strong criticism from opposition groups who accused the government of President Pervez Musharraf of bowing to American pressure.
“Gen. Musharraf is doing it just to appease the United States,” said Ahsan Iqbal, a senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “This is a national insult. We are going to launch a campaign for their release because they are our national heroes.”
“Arresting people who sacrifice their comfort for the sake of the nuclear program amounts to national tragedy,” he added.
Professor Khushid Ahmed, deputy chief of the Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islamic, said the arrest had put the country’s sole deterrent in “grave danger”.
The senior president of the country’s Supreme Court’s Bar Association, Ikram Chaudhry, said he had applied to the country’s highest court that the case against the scientists be justified in court.
—Additional input from agencies
