Pakistan’s probe into the alleged sale of nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya has narrowed to three scientists and four military officers, as speculation mounted on Tuesday that ”national heroes” could be charged.
President Pervez Musharraf, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and Information Minister Sheikh Rashid have all declared this week that those found guilty of selling nuclear technology and expertise will be ”severely” punished.
Their pledges raise the awkward prospect of charging some of Pakistan’s most revered men, elevated to national hero status for their contributions to making Pakistan a nuclear power and giving it near parity with nuclear-armed neighbour India.
”This is a very sensitive matter,” Hayat was quoted as saying in the Dawn newspaper on Tuesday.
”If some of those who were called national heroes have done this and are being exposed, the nation has the right to see true faces of those who have compromised Pakistan’s national interest and used its assets for personal gains.”
Already the investigation, which has seen at least 14 top nuclear scientists and administrators interrogated, has infuriated their families and Islamist organisations. They have held almost daily protests against the treatment of those questioned in recent weeks.
The widely revered ”father” of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan — a metallurgist who was charged with stealing the blueprints for uranium centrifuges while working in The Netherlands in the 1970s — is among those to have been questioned.
The Asian Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Khan (66) may be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, according to an unnamed government official.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Masood Khan said the probe is now focused on three military officials and four nuclear scientists and engineers.
”Investigations are trying to determine if these persons motivated by personal greed or ambition transferred sensitive information or technology to other countries through a black market,” he told a press briefing on Tuesday.
”What is being established is if money was involved.”
Of the seven under intensive investigation, ”one or two” may be guilty, Information Minister Rashid said.
”There may be one or two who [indulged in proliferation] for personal commercial gains.”
The probe will be finished before the Muslim festival of Eid-al Adha next week, Rashid said.
Musharraf, who told the BBC on Monday that guilty proliferators will be harshly punished, repeated the promise to a high-level meeting later on Monday, Rashid said.
”The meeting reiterated that those found guilty will be dealt with severely and those found innocent will be allowed to go home,” the minister said.
The government probe, under way since December, was prompted by information from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and subsequent trips by Pakistani investigators to Iran, Libya and the IAEA’s headquarters in Vienna.
Rashid said the purpose of the probe is ”not to disgrace the scientists. We accord our scientists full respect.” — Sapa-AFP