01-30-2004, 06:42 PM
<b>Paki Dictator Faces Difficult Choice in Resolving Nuclear Secrets Scandal</b>
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - An investigation into charges that Pakistani scientists sold nuclear weapons technology is nearing its conclusion, and President Pervez Musharraf appears to face a bleak choice: either condemn a national hero or undermine his government's own credibility.
Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of the program that made Pakistan the Islamic world's only nuclear power, has been linked along with a top aide to shady dealings in the nuclear black market that supplied technology to Iran and Libya.
The government has stopped short of publicly condemning them, but a welter of allegations about their personal wealth and overseas bank accounts has increased pressure on Musharraf to take action.
"The government either has to determine there was no leakage or contact of the establishment with the black market, or if they admit there may have been, they have to do something about it," Khalid Mahmood, a senior research fellow at Islamabad's Institute of Regional Studies, said Friday. "They cannot wriggle out of this."
Prosecuting the scientists risks airing embarrassing evidence, but a mere slap on the wrist for Khan - such as stripping him of his post as an adviser to the prime minister - would disappoint Islamabad's Western allies.
"Doing nothing would damage the credibility of the government after they started this entire process," Mahmood said.
Pakistan began its investigation in late November after admissions by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated a Pakistani connection. Allegations also have surfaced that Pakistani technology spread to Libya and North Korea.
For years, Pakistan rejected allegations of sharing nuclear weapons knowledge, but the Iranian evidence has forced it to concede publicly that "one or two people" from its program acted for personal gain - possibly exploiting their ties with clandestine suppliers who helped Pakistan get around international restrictions and build its own bomb, tested in 1998.
Officials familiar with the investigation say Khan and Mohammed Farooq, former director-general of the Khan Research Laboratories, had black-market contacts that supplied nuclear technology to Iran and Libya.
"A lot of money has been found in the bank accounts of Khan and Farooq," a senior government official said Friday on condition of anonymity. "It is yet to be determined who gave them this money."
But in a sign the government may be reluctant to punish Khan, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat came to his defense in a flurry of media interviews published Friday.
"We are questioning a number of scientists and some of them are suspect, but Dr. Khan is not among them," Hayyat told The Nation daily.
In all, six scientists and security officials remain in custody, including Farooq, and several others have been released after questioning. Khan has been questioned and friends say he is restricted to Islamabad, but has not been detained.
Controversy has long surrounded Khan, who was convicted in absentia of stealing blueprints from a nuclear lab in the Netherlands where he worked in the 1970s. He was later acquitted on a technicality.
He remains an icon of impoverished Pakistan's successful campaign to create a formidable nuclear defense against a much larger foe, India.
Punishing him would anger many Pakistani nationalists and likely trigger demonstrations, and the decision on his fate has preoccupied the country's leadership. Musharraf, an army general, discussed the case Thursday with top military commanders.
A public prosecution could embarrass the military and government, which face unanswered questions over how they could have been in the dark about any nuclear transfers.
"Individual scientists might come out into the open and tell the whole story," said A.H. Nayyar, a physicist at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University who has closely followed Pakistan's nuclear program.
"That should be in the minds of government people, too, and they are likely to be very careful," he said.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - An investigation into charges that Pakistani scientists sold nuclear weapons technology is nearing its conclusion, and President Pervez Musharraf appears to face a bleak choice: either condemn a national hero or undermine his government's own credibility.
Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of the program that made Pakistan the Islamic world's only nuclear power, has been linked along with a top aide to shady dealings in the nuclear black market that supplied technology to Iran and Libya.
The government has stopped short of publicly condemning them, but a welter of allegations about their personal wealth and overseas bank accounts has increased pressure on Musharraf to take action.
"The government either has to determine there was no leakage or contact of the establishment with the black market, or if they admit there may have been, they have to do something about it," Khalid Mahmood, a senior research fellow at Islamabad's Institute of Regional Studies, said Friday. "They cannot wriggle out of this."
Prosecuting the scientists risks airing embarrassing evidence, but a mere slap on the wrist for Khan - such as stripping him of his post as an adviser to the prime minister - would disappoint Islamabad's Western allies.
"Doing nothing would damage the credibility of the government after they started this entire process," Mahmood said.
Pakistan began its investigation in late November after admissions by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated a Pakistani connection. Allegations also have surfaced that Pakistani technology spread to Libya and North Korea.
For years, Pakistan rejected allegations of sharing nuclear weapons knowledge, but the Iranian evidence has forced it to concede publicly that "one or two people" from its program acted for personal gain - possibly exploiting their ties with clandestine suppliers who helped Pakistan get around international restrictions and build its own bomb, tested in 1998.
Officials familiar with the investigation say Khan and Mohammed Farooq, former director-general of the Khan Research Laboratories, had black-market contacts that supplied nuclear technology to Iran and Libya.
"A lot of money has been found in the bank accounts of Khan and Farooq," a senior government official said Friday on condition of anonymity. "It is yet to be determined who gave them this money."
But in a sign the government may be reluctant to punish Khan, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat came to his defense in a flurry of media interviews published Friday.
"We are questioning a number of scientists and some of them are suspect, but Dr. Khan is not among them," Hayyat told The Nation daily.
In all, six scientists and security officials remain in custody, including Farooq, and several others have been released after questioning. Khan has been questioned and friends say he is restricted to Islamabad, but has not been detained.
Controversy has long surrounded Khan, who was convicted in absentia of stealing blueprints from a nuclear lab in the Netherlands where he worked in the 1970s. He was later acquitted on a technicality.
He remains an icon of impoverished Pakistan's successful campaign to create a formidable nuclear defense against a much larger foe, India.
Punishing him would anger many Pakistani nationalists and likely trigger demonstrations, and the decision on his fate has preoccupied the country's leadership. Musharraf, an army general, discussed the case Thursday with top military commanders.
A public prosecution could embarrass the military and government, which face unanswered questions over how they could have been in the dark about any nuclear transfers.
"Individual scientists might come out into the open and tell the whole story," said A.H. Nayyar, a physicist at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University who has closely followed Pakistan's nuclear program.
"That should be in the minds of government people, too, and they are likely to be very careful," he said.