Nuclear officials reject Khan's claims on centrifuges

Islamabad: Pakistan's top nuclear authority on Saturday rejected claims by atomic scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan that the army and President Pervez Musharraf sent centrifuges to North Korea in 2000.

Lieutenant General Khalid Kidwai, head of the Strategic Planning Division (SPD), told a select group of reporters there was "enough evidence" about the proliferation network that Khan had run from 1987.

Kidwai reiterated that there had been no involvement by the army, Musharraf, SPD or the Inter Services Intelligence spy agency in the transfer of centrifuges to North Korea.

The briefing followed media interviews with Khan in which he made the claim which Kidwai said was damaging the national interest.

"Technically, yes it happened in Musharraf's tenure, but giving an impression that he or the army was aware or supervised it is wrong," Kidwai said. "I would like to categorically say it is absolutely wrong, false."

Network dismantled

He said they had evidence about Khan's network which was dismantled more than four years ago and "we can produce it in camera at any level -court, parliamentary committee, tribunal or any group of people."

Kidwai said a dozen centrifuges - used for enriching uranium - were sent to North Korea by Khan's network in 2000 and one was sent several years earlier.

He said the government got suspicious about Khan's activities around the same time which finally led to his termination as head of the country's main nuclear research laboratory in 2001.

Khan was pardoned by Musharraf in 2004 after making a televised statement admitting to passing nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya but has not been allowed out in public.

Forced confession

However, after Musharraf's allies lost general elections in February, Khan retracted his confession and said that it was forced.

The new government has recently relaxed restrictions on Khan, including allowing him to meet friends at a scientific institute and take phone calls, although he remains effectively confined to his house.

Khan said on Friday that Pakistan's army supervised a 2000 shipment of used P-1 centrifuges to North Korea. It must have been sent with the approval of Musharraf, the then-army chief who took power in a 1999 coup, Khan alleged.

"It was a North Korean plane, and the army had complete knowledge about it and the equipment," Khan said of the shipment.

"It must have gone with Musharraf's consent."

The comments caused a stir in Pakistani media, and newspapers played the story prominently on their front pages on Saturday.