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Pak
army involved in nuke scam
What
others
say..........
In
spite of all the declamations of Musharraf to the country, even
the naive would not buy the general's statement that only a few
``greedy'' scientists were involved in selling nuclear expertise and
equipment to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Now that the father of the
Pakistan bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan has directly implicated three Pak
army generals, including Musharraf, Musharraf will have a tough time
to undo the damage that has been inflicted on his credibility. Khan
has named two other generals who were chief of staff before
Musharraf and who had fully approved of the deals with those
countries during their tenure. Musharraf tried to distance the army
from this trade in proliferation when he was cutting a dash at Davos
where he was lionised by the entire western press and many
politicians who ought to know better.
It goes without
saying that no scientist alone could procure the key to the nuclear
arsenal in Pakistan, since the army has been in full control of the
nuclear programme all the time. Besides, the Pakistan intelligence
is a well-trained and thoroughly eagle-eyed service that no Pak
scientist, however eminent he might be, could pull the wool over the
eyes of the service. Khan's words are very significant when he says:
``no debriefing is complete unless they debrief us together''. And
yet another clue to the involvement of the top army brass is that
selling the nuke secrets has not been a one-time affair. The
transfer of expertise and equipment has been going on for years. The
proliferation operations with Iran lasted three years from 1989 to
1991 and deals with Libya and North Korea lasted six long years by
which time Musharraf had become the army chief. What is more,
equipment and design drawings were flown to North Korea in
government planes, something which no scientists could procure
without top-level collaboration.
Musharraf had waxed
eloquent in a remorseful mood at the world forum in Davos how he
regretted the unwitting lapses of intelligence, loose administrative
procedures and a short-sighted security system. Some of the
stallions of the world press, instead of ferreting out the truth by
cross-questioning Musharraf, seemed to accept the Pak general's
version with meek credulity. Washington believes that the transfer
of secret nuclear know-how to Libya has been going on till six
months ago which is the period when Musharraf has had tight control
over the nuclear establishment with ``not a mouse moving'' without
Musharraf being privy to it. And yet the Bush administration is all
praise for the crackdown that Musharraf has enacted after
masterminding the whole thing. ``We welcome the Pakistani
investigation'', said a US State Department spokesman. He also says
that the US appreciates the seriousness with which Musharraf takes
his commitment that Pakistan will not be a source of proliferation.
Some commitment this! The question now is whether any other country
has gained from Pak nuclear largesse.
l
The Free Press Journal l
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