Pakistan admits Khan
gave nuclear material to Iran
We could have made the bomb in 1988: Benazir »
UK confident about Pak's handling of rogue N-
scientist »
Pak says it will abide by nuke non-
proliferation »
Iran says it had no choice but to keep nuclear
program
secret »
Pak may use nuke to counter India's larger
conventional A
rogue nuclear scientist who is at the heart of an
international nuclear black market investigation
gave
centrifuges to Iran, but Pakistan's Government knew
nothing
about the transfer, the information minister said
on
Thursday.
It is the first time that the Pakistani Government
has
acknowledged that Abdul Qadeer Khan actually gave
material
to Iran, though they have admitted in the past that
his
group sold technology and blueprints to several
countries.
"Dr Abdul Qadeer gave some centrifuges to Iran,"
Information Minister Sheikh
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Rashid Ahmed told the agency.
"He helped Iran in his personal capacity, and the
Pakistan
Government had nothing to do with it."
Ahmed originally made the remarks at a seminar in
Islamabad
organised by a local newspaper group, in which he
stuck
by
Pakistan's insistence that despite his crimes, Khan
would
never be handed over to a third country for
prosecution.
Ahmed said that Islamabad is fully cooperating with
the
International Atomic Energy Agency, the world's
nuclear
watchdog.
Khan, considered the father of Pakistan's own
nuclear
program, confessed last year that he sold nuclear
technology to Iran — Pakistan's Southwestern
neighbour —
as
well as North Korea and Libya.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pardoned the
disgraced
scientist and allowed him to keep the riches he
allegedly
earned from the trade.
However, the scientist remains restricted to his
home
in an
More reviews about the Hindustan Times