PAKISTAN鈥橲 president, General Pervez Musharraf, is still resisting calls to let the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) interview disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, preferring instead to drip-feed information when the clamour becomes too loud.
On 29 August, Pakistan鈥檚 ambassador to the US, General Jahangir Karamat, said that the country was doing its best to help dismantle the Khan nuclear supermarket, but that extraditing Khan, who is seen as a national hero by most Pakistanis, was out of the question. 鈥淸The US] should not even talk about it,鈥� he said.
Last week, Musharraf admitted for the first time to Japanese news agency Kyodo News that Khan had sent entire nuclear centrifuge machines and their designs to North Korea, and that he may have exported uranium hexafluoride, which can be used both as reactor fuel and to make the material used in warheads. The admission means that North Korea joins Iran and Libya as a confirmed recipient of technology via Khan.
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鈥淜han sent entire nuclear centrifuge machines and their designs to North Korea鈥�
Pakistani investigators are understood to be submitting a list of questions to Khan on the IAEA鈥檚 behalf. A source close to Musharraf told New 杏吧原创 that Khan is likely to remain under house arrest for the rest of his life.