I did not indulge in proliferation and there is no such thing as an “A.Q. Khan Network
ISLAMABAD: The father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan has said that the nuclear assets of Pakistan are completely safe, well protected by the National Command Authority and are impregnable using various tiers. “There never was, there is not and there never will be any threat to our nuclear assets. This hype has been created by the West, Dr Qadeer said in an interview with German paper SPIEGEL ONLINE.
He said that right from the early 1980s on, the army put a fully fail-safe mechanism in place, which was subsequently improved upon by successive army chiefs. The plant was always secured by a fully armed army contingent and the perimeters were made impregnable using various tiers.
Since then the security of our nuclear assets has been taken care of by the National Command Authority which has put in place a system whereby decisions are to be taken by a number of people who also possess specific security codes. It would thus be impossible, even if there were an infiltration of extremists, to pass all the components of the security system and get to the bomb, Dr Qadeer said. Refuting claims that he had indulged in the business of nuclear proliferation Dr AQ Khan said, “ I did not indulge in proliferation and there is no such thing as an “A.Q. Khan Network.”
He went on to say that International suppliers were willing to sell to anyone able to pay and they didn’t need me for that. The suppliers to Libya and Iran were the same as the ones Khan Research Laboratories used. We had a contract with North Korea for the production of missiles. They already had their own plutonium production program and they used plutonium in their test procedures. Logistics and security at our plant was in the hands of the army and they checked each and every item that came in or left. How then could I have sent things to any country without the army’s knowledge?
“I did not benefit financially. If that had been the case, would the Special Plans Division, the army unit I worked with, now be paying me a monthly “special pension”? In response to a question regarding his public confession of selling nuclear technology, AQ Khan said he took the blame as the political leadership had urgently asked him to do so and he was promised a complete pardon with complete rehabilitation by Pervez Musharraf.
However, within a few days the mischief started and he started talking of a “conditional pardon,” the consequences of which we now all know. Our house was searched and bugged, our phones and Internet connection were disconnected, he said.
“I feel stabbed in the back by the very people who benefited most from my work — i.e., the armyâ€, he said.
Regarding nuclear war between Pakistan and India he said Pakistan was forced to go nuclear in response to the Indian tests and political aggression. The deterrence of nuclear weapons lies in the fact that both sides know that the other can retaliate in kind. “There has not been one between India and Pakistan since 1971. The Kargil skirmishes were localized and the issue of the use of nuclear weapons never arose. We may be naive, but we are not idiots. Both sides know what the consequences would beâ€, he said. Nuclear weapons are a means of ensuring peace by using it as a tit-for-tat threat., he said.-Online
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