Musharraf forced scientist to retire

Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, has said he forced the disgraced founder of the country's nuclear programme into early retirement three years ago after suspecting him of selling nuclear secrets to other countries.

Last week Abdul Qadeer Khan accepted sole responsibility for sales of nuclear arms technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, ending a two-month government investigation into the scandal.

He was promptly pardoned by General Musharraf, who refused to let independent investigators look further at a case in which many analysts believe senior Pakistani officials may also be implicated.

Gen Musharraf's claim that he tried to curb the proliferation three years ago, as reported in the New York Times yesterday, is a rebuff to widespread allegations that he was personally involved in the technology deals.

"We nipped the proliferation in the bud, we stopped the proliferation," Gen Musharraf said of Dr Khan's retirement from his nuclear research post. "That is the important part."

He also denied that America had urged him for months to investigate allegations of rampant nuclear proliferation, which he eventually did in November. "If they knew it earlier, they should have told us," Gen Musharraf told the paper.

"Maybe a lot of things would not have happened," he said.

According to UN officials, the nuclear black market supplied by Dr Khan was flourishing until late last year, when UN and American agents began investigating it.

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