No access to nuke scientist

2004-10-01 21:18

Islamabad - Pakistan on Friday said it would continue to co-operate with the UN global nuclear watchdog but that it would not allow it to interview the disgraced architect of the country's nuclear programme.

"Pakistan had extended co-operation to the IAEA and would continue to do so.

"However, access to a Pakistani scientist was not possible," a spokesperson for Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan, which is not a signatory to the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), would still cooperate with international efforts against the nuclear blackmarket, he said.

"Pakistan has full confidence in its own investigative system," the official added.

Pakistan has refused to let the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) interview disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, ringleader of a smuggling network, agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told the BBC on Thursday.

ElBaradei said Khan's network had "more than 30 companies and 30 countries all over the globe involved in this fantastic sophisticated illicit trafficking."

Pakistan was rocked earlier this year when Khan publicly confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Khan was given a conditional pardon by President Pervez Musharraf, who insisted the proliferation was carried out by a handful of scientists without government involvement.

Pakistan's federal parliament last month approved legislation tightening export controls to prevent the proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons.

- SAPA