The Hindu : A.Q. Khan episode an internal matter: Pakistan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

International

International

A.Q. Khan episode an internal matter: Pakistan

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, FEB. 7. Pakistan has contested the claim of the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, that the probe into the scandal on leak of nuclear secrets was not an internal affair of the country.

"The investigations in Pakistan are an internal matter and cannot be raised in any other forum," the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Masood Khan, said in response to comments made by Mr. Sinha that the issue would be raised in forums such as the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Mr. Khan said: "Pakistan is already cooperating with the IAEA. Therefore, Mr. Sinha's advice in this regard is gratuitous. We do not disagree with Mr. Sinha that all nuclear-capable states, including India, should behave in a responsible manner."

Mr. Khan's comment apparently was not so much aimed at the External Affairs Minister but at all those, particularly the American media, who have raised serious concerns on the issues arising out of the probe and the decision of the Pakistan Government to pardon the disgraced nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan.

At a press conference where he announced the decision to pardon Dr. Khan, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, said the probe was entirely an internal issue of Pakistan and it would not hand over any papers to any outside agency or country. Gen. Musharraf, however, said that Pakistan was ready to cooperate with the IAEA.

"This is a sovereign country, no documents will be submitted to the IAEA, to an independent inquiry and we will not allow the U.N. to supervise our nuclear programme," Gen. Musharraf said.

Pakistan sees the comments of the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, that he would ask Gen. Musharraf about the pardon essentially as a public posture to criticism in the media.

"This is a matter between Mr. Khan, who is a Pakistani citizen, and his Government. But it is a matter also that I will be talking to President Musharraf about," Gen. Powell told reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

He said that "goal number one" was making sure that no more sensitive nuclear details were passed on by any Pakistani scientists, including Dr. Khan, dubbed by Gen. Powell as the "biggest" of all nuclear proliferators.

Pakistan is expected to maintain that the leaks had taken place before the nuclear command and control authority was in place and there was no scope for such a scandal in the future.

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