ISLAMABAD, 29 January 2004 — Top Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan had direct ties with the international black market involved in proliferation of nuclear technology to Iran and Libya, a leading newspaper claimed yesterday.
Quoting unnamed “well informed” officials, the daily newspaper The News said Dr. Khan has been advised to stay home, which is now being closely guarded by intelligence agencies.
Khan, a national celebrity and known as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, has been at the center of the crisis since the authorities began questioning a dozen senior officials of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in November.
As the founder of the KRL in 1976, Khan had headed it until 2002, when he was appointed to his current position as adviser to the federal government. The News quoted an official saying initial observations from the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, against Pakistani scientists was so “damning” that President Pervez Musharraf decided to personally confront Khan in the last week of November, 2003.
“Pakistani investigators said that they have strong reasons to believe that misusing the benign government authority for peaceful nuclear cooperation with Iran, Dr. Khan authorized transfer of related information, including blue prints, to Iran and also helped them produce centrifuges for the uranium enrichment,” the report said.
It added Khan amassed millions of dollars through his clandestine nuclear deals and made no secret of it by spending the money publicly.
Pakistan’s nuclear quest had been a major irritant in its relations with most western countries including the United States. Economic sanctions were imposed after the country carried out six nuclear tests in response to five by India in May 1998.
Meanwhile, Khan’s fate hung in the balance yesterday as he underwent further questioning, an official said.
“The scientist is under microscopic scrutiny,” an official close to the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity. “We are still assessing the extent of his involvement in the proliferation of nuclear technology. Hopefully, it will be known by the end of this week.”
Four other scientists and three security officials associated with Pakistan’s key uranium enrichment facility, Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), are under investigation following allegations raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in November.
They include close aides of Khan, revered as a national hero for providing the key uranium centrifuge designs that enabled Pakistan to develop a nuclear bomb.
At least two individuals were “most likely to be charged with selling nuclear secrets for personal gains very soon”, the official said.
“Investigators are trying to establish whether these persons acted under the patronage of Dr. A.Q. Khan due to their close linkage with him.”
The nuclear information leaks took place between 1986 and 1993, the official said. The period was within Khan’s lengthy stay at the helm of Pakistan’s nuclear program as chairman of the KRL, named in his honor.
Nuclear technology was clandestinely transferred from Pakistan to the world black market in collusion with operatives from Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Asia.
“There are individuals from Pakistan, Germany, Holland, South Africa and the UAE” who had been named by Iran in its reports to the IAEA, the official said. Speculation has mounted over the past week that Khan’s movement has been restricted, and a leading Pakistani newspaper yesterday said his bank accounts had been frozen.
Officials denied freezing his accounts, but said he had been advised to stay at home. “There is no such move as banning bank accounts before any formal charges against any individual,” the official said.
“He has been politely told to stay indoors, though no official order has been issued,” a security officer said.
Pakistan’s nuclear program, begun in the 1970s, was covert until May 1998 when it conducted a series of nuclear tests in reaction to rival India’s atomic detonations.
Khan was placed in charge of Pakistan’s uranium enrichment after returning home in 1976 from the Netherlands, where he worked for an Anglo-Dutch-German nuclear research consortium. In March 2001, President Pervez Musharraf removed him from the post and made him special adviser on strategic and KRL affairs.
