ISLAMABAD, 22 January 2004 — The Pakistan government has released three nuclear scientists and officials detained for questioning over nuclear proliferation allegations, officials said yesterday. The three, two of whom were identified as Saeed Ahmed and Mohammad Zubair, have been cleared in the probe into at least 11 scientists and administrators, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said.
The probe was initiated after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wrote a letter in November to Pakistan, Rashid said. A senior official who could not be named said the letter concerned the suspected involvement of some Pakistani scientists and officials in trading nuclear know-how for personal gains.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, and two directors of the key uranium-enrichment plant Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) were questioned in December.
While Qadeer Khan was never detained the two KRL directors were, and one of them is still being held. Eight other KRL scientists and administrators, including Qadeer Khan’s top aide Major Islamul Haq, were taken in for questioning last weekend.
Rashid said those found guilty of indulging in nuclear leaks would be punished. “As a responsible nuclear state we cannot let any individual of sensitive organizations violate the rules and bring a bad name to the country,” he told AFP. Pakistan consistently denied sharing its nuclear technology until December, when it admitted that it was questioning several scientists including Qadeer Khan over the allegations.
It has stressed, however, that no government entity ever shared nuclear knowledge, pointing to “individual scientists” motivated by “personal greed or ambition.”
The families of Islam and scientist Nazir Ahmed have challenged their detention in court. Qadeer Khan, a metallurgist, established KRL near Islamabad in 1970s after returning from the Netherlands with the designs for uranium centrifuges, which transform uranium into weapons grade fuel.
He headed KRL until retiring in 2002. Pakistan went public as a nuclear power in May 1998 when it conducted underground nuclear tests in response to similar tests by rival India.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has decided to observe a countrywide protest tomorrow in collaboration with other bar associations against the arrest of nuclear scientists, Vice President SCBA and member of All Pakistan Lawyers Action Committee, Chaudhry Muhammad Ikram said. He said lawyers strongly condemned the arrest of scientists.
