ISLAMABAD, 8 February 2004 — Pakistan yesterday sought to combat international criticism for pardoning the man at the center of a nuclear information trading scandal by insisting the ongoing investigation was an “internal matter.”
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf this week pardoned Abdul Qadeer Khan, a national hero, after he admitted leaking secrets and begged for forgiveness following a lengthy investigation into the alleged transfer of nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
“The investigations in Pakistan are an internal matter and cannot be raised in any other forum,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said in an interview with state-run Pakistan Television yesterday.
The decision to charge and then pardon Khan provoked a storm of international criticism, raising concerns that Pakistan has sent a negative message to other would-be proliferators. The scandal has sparked a domestic outcry in Pakistan where Khan has long been hailed as the architect of Pakistan’s popular nuclear program, with the charge provoking countrywide protests and harsh words from opposition politicians.
The six-party Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal led countrywide protests on Friday against the “humiliation of national heroes,” while other opposition parties demanded a parliamentary probe into the nuclear proliferation scandal.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s neighbor waded into the fray with Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha saying Khan’s pardon had not closed the proliferation issue.
Nuclear issues “will have to be debated in the IAEA and elsewhere and be resolved so that we have more responsible behavior from countries which have nuclear capability”, Sinha said. Rejecting the assertion, the Pakistani spokesman Khan said, “Pakistan is already cooperating with the IAEA, therefore, Mr. Sinha’s advice in this regard is gratuitous.” However he said: “We do not disagree with Mr. Sinha that all nuclear-capable states, including India, should behave in a responsible manner.”
Sinha had said that the issue “is not really an internal matter of Pakistan... it is a matter of concern to the entire international community, necessitating a debate to ensure responsible behavior from nuclear-armed countries,” Sinha had told a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in New Delhi on Friday.
Khan on Wednesday had taken responsibility for the leaking of vital nuclear information during his leadership of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) which he founded and headed until his retirement in 2001. He also apologized to the nation unconditionally during a televised address.
