Pakistan Expands Nuke Tech Probe

Pakistan pledged Monday to thoroughly question as many as six scientists and administrators from its nuclear weapons establishment to try to determine whether Pakistani nuclear technology illegally reached Iran.

The government asserted once again that no official nuclear transfers had been allowed to Iran or any other country, but said that the widening probe into possible transfers by rogue individuals was necessary and would soon be concluded.

"We have adopted a pro-active posture," Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a news conference dominated by the nuclear issue. "Those who have not violated Pakistani laws should not have any apprehensions and fears whatsoever."

Pakistani investigators have detained five to six nuclear scientists and administrators over the past two days for "debriefings" into allegations that Pakistani technology had been a key part of Iran's efforts to build nuclear weapons, Khan said.

Tehran has pledged to dismantle the program and has handed information alleging Pakistani involvement to the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, which has passed it on to the Pakistani government for investigation.

"We are moving toward the conclusion of these debriefing sessions," Khan said. "We haven't made our final determination yet. There is no presumption of guilt. It is probable that some of these people would be cleared."

Khan denied that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had taken part in any questioning and said that no foreign country would be allowed to participate in the "in-house" probe.

"We are really surprised that there's this lopsided focus on Pakistan" in news coverage of the global nuclear proliferation issue, Khan said. "What has come to the surface is that there exists a black market, and we should all work to eliminate that black market."

Among those who have been detained is Islam-ul Haq, a director at the country's top nuclear weapons center, Khan Research Laboratories, who was picked up by intelligence agents Saturday while dining at the residence of the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan.

The laboratory is named after Khan, until now a national hero for leading Pakistan to its underground test of the Islamic world's first nuclear bomb in 1998. The bomb was designed as a deterrent to Pakistan's nuclear-armed neighbor, India. Haq is Khan's principal staff officer.

Families of Haq and the other detained men — who are part of Pakistan's pampered military and scientific elite — have protested that they have no access to the detainees.

Shafiq-ur Rahman, son of Sajawal Khan Malik, vowed that he would seek a court order Tuesday to allow him to see his 66-year-old father, who retired from the lab as director of maintenance and general services in 2001.

"He should have been treated like you treat older citizens elsewhere in the world, with respect, with honor," Rahman said. "This is what you get in this country."

During the past two months, Pakistan has interrogated a handful of scientists at the laboratory. Khan has also been questioned, although he has not been detained and is still treated as an official dignitary in Pakistan.

The investigations come as Pakistan intensifies crackdowns as part of the U.S.-led war on terror, most recently arresting seven suspected al Qaeda militants Sunday and seizing a weapons cache in the teeming port city of Karachi.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told Parliament in a speech Saturday that Pakistan would not allow proliferation and wanted to be viewed by the world as a responsible nuclear power.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said American officials have presented evidence to Pakistan's leaders of Pakistani involvement in the spread of nuclear weapons technology.

The Jan. 2 arrest of South African-based businessman Asher Karni at a Denver airport, accused of smuggling nuclear bomb triggers to Pakistan, deepened suspicions of the country's involvement in the nuclear black market.

Pakistan has all been accused of — and denies — supplying nuclear technology to Libya and North Korea. Libya announced last month it was giving up its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs and pledged to name its suppliers. Libyan officials said they did not receive technology from Pakistan.