Scientists may have sold nuclear secrets: President

24 Jan, 2004

President General Pervez Musharraf said on Friday it appeared scientists had sold nuclear secrets abroad, but reiterated Islamabad's position that there had been no official involvement.
The President told CNN while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the investigation, launched in November, would be finished in "a few weeks".
Asked the likely outcome, he replied: "Well, I would not like to predict, but it appears that some individuals, as I said, were involved for personal financial gain."
The President went further than past statements from his government that individual scientists "may" have transferred nuclear technology to neighbouring Iran.
He said similar allegations had been made against European individuals and countries, "So it is not Pakistan alone".
And he stressed: "There is no such evidence that any government personality or military personality was involved in this at all."
Asked about reports that Pakistani nuclear scientists had also transferred technology to Libya and North Korea, he replied: "I am not denying anything because we are investigating; we have sent teams to Libya, we have sent teams to Iran and we are in contact with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). We are collecting all the data..."
He vowed "stern action" against violators: "There is nothing that we want to hide, we want to be very up and clear about it that we will move against anybody who proliferated," he said.
Pakistan would move against any violator "because they are enemies of the state", he said.
To a question on Kashmir, the President said there is need for a stepwise approach to resolve disputes between Pakistan and India including the contentious issue of Kashmir.
He said that the first two steps of starting negotiations and accepting the reality of Kashmir issue to be resolved have been taken.
Now, we have to move to third step to eliminate anything that is not acceptable to India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri people and then move on to a composite dialogue.
He said various committees will have to be formed to deal with each issue and the Kashmir committee will decide the core issue.
He said discussions are going on between the foreign ministries of Pakistan and India over the level and venue of talks to be held next month. He, however, said that it cannot be at the summit level.
In reply to a question about allegations by Afghan leadership against Pakistan, the President described them as unfortunate. He said fifty-six percent of the actions in Afghanistan have taken place beyond fifty miles of Pak-Afghan border while forty-four percent actions took place within fifty miles area.
He said both the countries are fighting the same enemies, namely al Qaeda and Taleban.
The President said Pakistan has done its best to curb the menace of al Qaeda terrorists activities and the world knows this as well as Afghanistan.
He rejected the impression of the resurgence of Taleban and described it a misperception in the media.
He said Pakistan has strengthened its intelligence network, its quick reaction force is in place and it has moved against a number of targets and achieved successes in it.
He said al Qaeda is on the run and they are leaving the area because of operations by Pakistan. He said this is known to those operating on the Afghan side.
Asked about the attempts on his life, he said the government has rounded up all the people directly involved. He said the government is reasonably sure that it is the al Qaeda operatives who were behind those attacks.
He said they have not got identified the person who may have issued the orders. He said they have made a lot of success in unearthing them and in the process unearthed people who were involved in other terrorist activities within Pakistan.
He said no political party including any religious party was behind the attempt on his life.

Read Comments