Pakistan denies role in Iran bomb move

PAKISTAN yesterday admitted scientists involved in its atom bomb program may have been driven by “personal ambition or greed” to export technology to Iran, but added that the government had no part in any such deals.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistan was determined to get to the bottom of allegations that nuclear technology may have been transferred to Iran.

He said it began questioning scientists from a state-run laboratory set up by the father of its bomb program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, five to six weeks ago after approaches by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and information from the Iranian government that “pointed to certain individuals”.

On Monday, Islamabad revealed that AQ Khan, revered as a national hero for developing a nuclear bomb tested in 1998 to match that of rival India, was being questioned in connection with “debriefings” of several scientists working at his Khan Research Laboratories, a uranium enrichment plant near Islamabad.