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| Tuesday, 3 February 2004 |
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Founder of nuclear program admits leaking secrets: official ISLAMABAD, Monday (AFP) The founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abul Qadeer Khan, has confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, an official involved in the investigation has told AFP. An 11-page report detailing the leaks which took place between 1986 and 1993 has been submitted to President Pervez Musharraf but it was unclear yet whether Khan, a national hero, would be prosecuted. Analysts have warned that prosecuting the 66-year-old metallurgist, who played a key role in making Pakistan a nuclear power by procuring the blueprint for uranium centrifuges, would be risky and expose the nuclear program to scrutiny. "Dr. Qadeer and four others have accepted that they were involved in leaking nuclear know-how outside Pakistan to groups working for Iran, Libya and North Korea," the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP late Sunday. It was the first time that North Korea has been named in the government's two-month investigation which was started after information was handed over by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from Iran. The information referred to the possible involvement of Pakistani scientists and officials in selling nuclear secrets for personal profit. Asked if there will be criminal proceedings against Khan and the four others who have confessed, he said: "It is up to the National Command Authority to take a decision of which the President Pervez Musharraf is the chairman." It was not yet clear whether Khan had admitted to giving centrifuge designs for uranium enrichment to Iran and Libya, he said. Another government official said Musharraf may address the nation soon after the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha begins later Monday. Meanwhile opposition parties were furious at Khan's sacking and called for protests and an inquiry. An Islamist alliance alluded to "external pressure", saying the West was uncomfortable with a nuclearised Islamic country, while another party alleged the action could be politically motivated. "It is the ultimate insult to the people of Pakistan," Senator Saadia Abbasi of exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League told AFP. |
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