Fallen hero takes full responsibility for proliferation on television

Pakistan's fallen nuclear hero Dr. Adul Qadeer Khan yesterday "voluntarily" confessed to proliferating nuclear technology in a statement read out by him on state television and implored the "traumatised nation" to pardon him.

The 66-year-old architect of the country's nuclear programme sombrely delivered the confessional statement at 5.30 pm (1230 GMT) soon after a meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf held at Khan's request.

During the hour-long meeting in Rawalpindi, Khan accepted "full responsibility" for nuclear leaks and submitted a petition for clemency in view of his "services to national security", a government statement said.

Musharraf chaired a special session of the top decision-making body on nuclear and missile programmes, the National Command Authority headed by him, before taking a "final decision" on Khan's mercy plea.

Expectations are that the president may announce the verdict on Khan's fate when according to earlier official indications he goes on the air in the coming days to take the nation into confidence on the nuclear leaks scandal.

According to government officials, Khan was found guilty in a two-month probe into nuclear technology transfers in the 1980s and 1990s to Iran, Libya and North Korea during his 25-year stint as head of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), the country's main uranium enrichment facility.

More than a dozen other KRL scientists and administrators were interrogated in the investigation initiated after the UN International Atomic Energy Agency relayed to Islamabad names of individuals provided by Iran and Libya.

Khan's dramatic confession was bound to shock a nation that has revered Khan. In his recorded statement, Khan told the nation he was appearing before it with "deepest sense of sorrow, anguish and regret" in order to "atone for some of the anguish and pain that has been suffered by the people of Pakistan."

He said the two-month probe into nuclear leaks had "established that many of the reported activities did occur and these were inevitably initiated at my behest."

"In my interviews with the concerned government officials I was confronted with the evidence and findings and I have voluntarily admitted that much of it is true and accurate," he said in the recorded statement.

"My dear brothers and sisters, I have chosen to appear before you to offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies to a traumatised nation."

"It pains me that my achievements of providing foolproof security to my nation could have been placed in serious jeopardy on account of my activities, which were based in good faith but on errors of judgment related to unauthorised proliferation activities."

"I wish to place on record that my subordinates were acting in good faith like me on my instructions. I also clarify that there was never any kind of authorisation by any government official."