The black market sale of nuclear technology by rogue scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan returned to haunt Pakistan this week with the release in Britain of a new report suggesting his activities were tacitly approved from above and that a threat may still exist.
"Khan probably had some signal, if not explicit permission, from his superiors for nuclear cooperation with Iran," said the dossier presented by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London Wednesday.
There is no evidence of authorisation of Khan's proliferation network while he ran Pakistan's nuclear programme, IISS director John Chipman told journalists.
By Nick Allen
Islamabad (dpa) - The black market sale of nuclear technology by rogue scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan returned to haunt Pakistan this week with the release in Britain of a new report suggesting his activities were tacitly approved from above and that a threat may still exist.
"Khan probably had some signal, if not explicit permission, from his superiors for nuclear cooperation with Iran," said the dossier presented by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London Wednesday.
There is no evidence of authorisation of Khan's proliferation network while he ran Pakistan's nuclear programme, IISS director John Chipman told journalists.
But he added, "It is logical to assume that the intelligence apparatus did know more than Pakistan has ever let on."
Moreover, the international framework of export controls still contained "serious gaps" that could be exploited by a similar network.
"At least some of Khan's associates appear to have escaped law enforcement attention and could, after a period of lying low, resume their black market business," said the report, titled "Nuclear Black Markets: Pakistan, A Q Khan and the rise of proliferation networks - a net assessment".
In Islamabad, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said Thursday an official response may follow a thorough examination of the 170-page document.
However, she dismissed as "rubbish" reports published in the Pakistani daily The News, which extensively cited the institute's findings.
The paper also quoted report editor Mark Fitzpatrick, who said at its presentation that owing to international restrictions, Pakistan must still be involved in "smuggling and illicit procurement" of equipment to maintain its nuclear programme.
Concerning the aftermath of the Khan scandal, Aslam noted that the scientist had many accomplices in European countries, including Germany and Britain, who were not punished for their involvement.
"Why should this only be about Pakistan, why haven't those governments taken action?" she said.
According to the IISS, most of the people Khan worked with abroad remain free and only three were sentenced and imprisoned. Lack of admissible evidence prevented tough action against others.
Credited as the "Father of the Pakistani nuclear programme" - a description the institute said was greatly exaggerated and overlooked work by other scientists - Khan ran his operations with scant state supervision from the mid-1970s until the exposure from 2003 of his dealings with Iran, North Korea and Libya.
"Unquestioned, Khan began to order many more components than Pakistan's enrichment programme required," the dossier said. In the 1980s he also sold off old centrifuges for uranium enrichment and other surplus materials from the Pakistani programme. Two dozen centrifuges were supplied to North Korea alone.
He was finally taken to task after George Tenet, the former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, personally presented Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf with hard evidence of the covert dealings.
"Khan has stolen your nuclear secrets. We know this, because we stole them from him," Tenet says he told Musharraf in a one-to-one meeting in New York in late 2003.
He then showed the president a blueprint of Pakistani centrifuges sold to Iran and North Korea as well as designs for a uranium processing plant sold to Libya.
It did not take long for the matter to go public.
"We stood before the world as the illicit source of nuclear technology for some of the world's most dangerous regimes," Musharraf recalled in his 2006 autobiography, describing the meeting with Tenet as one of the most embarrassing moments of his life: "I did not know what to say. I have seldom found myself at a loss for words."
On February 4, 2004, Khan appeared on national television and apologised for running a proliferation ring. Apparently mindful of the inevitable uproar over harsh prosecution of the man who provided the nuclear deterrent against India, the president pardoned him the next day. At age 72, Khan remains under house arrest in Islamabad and is suffering from pancreatic cancer.
At the time of his interrogation by Pakistani intelligence, he is reported to have claimed that every army chief since General Zia (in power from 1977-1988) knew of his activities and that if indicted he would reveal every national secret and expose all those involved.
It has also been speculated that Khan's two daughters, who live in Britain, are in possession of documents that link high-ranking officials to his network and thus protect him from further action.
In a possible move to deflect criticism stemming from the IISS report, Pakistan on Monday set up a new body to tighten controls over nuclear and missile technology exports.
The step showed "Pakistan's strong commitment to non-proliferation and determination to fulfil its national and international export control commitments," foreign ministry spokesperson Aslam said.
