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Pakistan considers fate of disgraced scientist Pakistan's cabinet met on Thursday to consider the fate of the man who led the country's atomic weapons drive after he admitted passing nuclear secrets in a proliferation scandal stretching from Libya to DPRK.
The National Command Authority, which oversees Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and is headed by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, said Wednesday it had deferred Abdul Qadeer Khan's appeal for clemency to the cabinet.
They say Musharraf may have agreed to pardon Khan in return for his apology.
The mystery of how Khan could have proliferated atomic secrets without government or military knowledge dominated local newspaper comments after his dramatic personal apology on national television Wednesday night.
In his address, Khan absolved the government and fellow scientists of blame in an apparent bid by all concerned to draw a line at home under what has emerged as one of the greatest nuclear proliferation scandals in history.
Commentators said Khan's confession smacked of a cover-up, possibly part of a wider deal to spare the powerful military unwanted scrutiny in any trial and to allow Musharraf to sidestep pressure from Islamists and nationalists.
"The problem for President Musharraf is no longer related as much to foreign policy as to domestic politics," the Daily Times said in its editorial.
"No one believes that the scientists could have smuggled some heavy nuclear hardware abroad without the knowledge of the Pakistan Army, which has been in charge of the nuclear program."
However the paper said the issue should be laid to rest by accepting Khan's petition for mercy and ensuring that there was no repetition of the proliferation activities.
"REAMS OF EVIDENCE"
The News said Khan's admission came after officials presented him with "reams of evidence" of his illegal activities and threatened to lay the whole affair out for public scrutiny.
It quoted one official as saying an agreed formula "would allow Dr Khan to live the rest of his life peacefully in Pakistan, while the state would have an assurance that he would refrain from talking on this sensitive subject in the future."
The United States, which has urged Pakistan to stop illegal proliferation to what it considers "rogue" states, has publicly backed Musharraf, a key ally in its global battle against al Qaeda and allied Islamic militants.
A senior military official told Pakistani journalists on Sunday that Khan had made a detailed statement confessing to supplying designs, hardware and materials used to make enriched uranium for atomic bombs to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
But the Pakistani revelations have raised concerns that the nuclear black market used by Khan to sell technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea may be far bigger than initially feared.
The case is sensitive for the United States which is eager to avoid jeopardizing Musharraf's position in Pakistan, which -- along with Saudi Arabia and Indonesia -- is one of Washington's three key Muslim allies in its "war on terror."
Musharraf has already made many enemies at home for supporting the U.S.-led campaign and trying to make peace with India. The general narrowly survived two assassination attempts late last year blamed on disgruntled Islamic militants. Khan sought to clear his fellow scientists, who he said had acted under his instructions. Four other scientists have been questioned in the investigation along with two brigadiers responsible for security at the nuclear facility where he worked. Khan has been reported in foreign media as saying he acted on the indirect instructions of two former army chiefs, Generals Aslam Beg and Jehangir Karamat. Beg has denied the charge. The News quoted Pakistani officials as saying he had admitted that Western intelligence allegations against him were correct after being confronted with information gathered from a Dubai-based Sri Lankan middleman being investigated in Malaysia. Malaysian police said they were investigating businessman B.S.A. Tahir after U.S. and British intelligence tipped off authorities in November that centrifuge parts made in Malaysia had been found a month earlier aboard a ship bound for Libya. The parts were placed in wooden boxes labeled Scomi Precision Engineering Sdn Bhd (SCOPE), a subsidiary of Scomi Group Bhd, a firm controlled by Kamaluddin Abdullah, son of Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. |
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