Dr Qadeer’s stir damaging: Kidwai
Staff Report

RAWALPINDI—Director General, Strategic Plans Division, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Khalid Kidwai has said the pardon granted to Dr. Abutl Qadeer Khan was not unconditional and that Dr. Khan’s statement has damaged the country’s standing. At a news briefing here at Strategic Plan Division, the DG said Dr. A.Q. Khan is free to speak and he can give any statement in his personal capacity.
He said the involvement of Dr. A.Q. Khan in North Korea’s issue came to surface which led to his debriefing. “Dr. Khan confessed and sought pardon from President Pervez Musharraf. On this the President said Dr. Khan should seek forgiveness from the nation.” “Dr. A.Q. Khan has not taken upon him the blame for others’ wrongdoings… he was not under any pressure nor any deal was struck with him,” Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Khalid Qidwai maintained.
He said the draft of address to the nation was prepared at National Command Authority and that Dr. A.Q. Khan agreed to read it after going through it in detail and also making some changes to it. “He was not under any pressure.” “Dr. Khan’s pardon was conditional and he was told that the same would stand withdrawn if anything new came to light regarding Pakistan’s security or nuclear proliferation to country’s other than Iran, Libya and North Korea,” DG Strategic Plans Division said.
He said Dr. Khan was kept in seclusion in view of security concerns and he cannot be left without security. “Dr. Khan had the freedom to go anywhere he wanted and he could be escorted wherever he wished to go,” he said, adding, “now due to the yesterday’s statement of Dr. A.Q. Khan Pakistan will have to face difficulties at international level.”
Pakistan’s nuclear scientist, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Saturday said he was handed a pre-written statement and was asked to read out the same with an assurance that doing this would correct everything but “now I will not stay silent anymore and react to the allegations immediately and in the similar tone.”
In reaction to the statement of the Director General of Strategic Plans Division, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Khalid Kidwai, he (Dr. A.Q. Khan) said “Dr. Kidwai has told a lie… I have not said anything on my own, I only repeated what President Musharraf had already said.”
“I only got one sentence added to the pre-written draft handed over to me, which read - I did it in good faith” Dr. A.Q. Khan said. He complained that he was not allowed to meet his ailing sister and sons and that he is seriously ill at present. “The foreign media has an ulterior motive and I will never talk to them again,” Dr. A.Q. Khan said.
Federal Information Minister, Sherry Rehman Saturday said Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan should give it a due thought before giving statements which could have implications on country’s sovereignty. She said this while talking to media at the inauguration of a free medical camp here at Baba Island. The Information Minister said the Friday’s statement of Dr. A. Q. Khan is being analysed and the Foreign Ministry will make public the country’s reaction to the same.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry insisted Saturday that its nuclear proliferation case was closed, a day after the disgraced architect of its atomic program claimed the army under President Pervez Musharraf helped spread the technology.