ISLAMABAD, 24 December 2003 — Pakistan admitted yesterday that some of its nuclear scientists might have sold sensitive information and know-how to Iran, but insisted that its nuclear command and control system was in safe and responsible hands.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan also said during a press briefing that the government itself had never been involved in the transfer of nuclear technology and that anybody found guilty of such an act would be punished. “Nobody is above the law.”
The statement came in the wake of the interrogation of the father of the country’s nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and other scientists.
The spokesman reiterated that Khan, who helped explode Pakistan’s nuclear bomb in 1998, was not under arrest and no restrictions have been placed on his movements.
“I am a free man. Anyone can meet me. There is no restriction on me,” Khan himself said.
At his news conference, Masood Khan said: “There are indications that certain individuals might have been motivated by personal ambition or greed. But let me add we have not made a final determination. Let’s not jump to conclusions.”
The admission, prompted by information given by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, is the latest in a wave of nuclear disclosures out of Libya, Pakistan and Iran.
“The information that was shared with us pointed to certain individuals and we had to hold the debriefing sessions,” Khan said. He did not elaborate on what kind of information was provided by Iran or the UN agency.
Diplomats said last month that the IAEA was probing a possible link between Iran and Pakistan. This followed Tehran’s acknowledgement that it had used centrifuge designs that appeared identical to ones used in Islamabad’s quest for the bomb.
Tehran, accused by Washington of seeking to develop nuclear arms, told the IAEA it had obtained the designs from a “middleman”, a Western diplomat said at the time.
On Sunday, Pakistan said Yasin Chohan, one of three Pakistani scientists detained earlier in the month, had been allowed home after a “personnel dependability and debriefing session”. It said two others, Mohammad Farooq, and another identified only as Saeed, were “still undergoing debriefing”.
On Monday, Bush administration officials said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had assured Washington that his government had not — at least “in the present time” — provided any nuclear secrets to countries like Iran and North Korea.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan called Musharraf’s personal assurances “important” and added that close cooperation between the United States and Pakistan in the war on terrorism would continue — despite any transfers of nuclear technology and know-how that might have taken place in the past.
— Additional input from agencies
