Spokesperson PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar has strongly rebutted Dr AQ Khan’s assertion that he transferred nuclear materials and technology to two countries on the orders of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The assertion of AQKhan is a belated and desperate attempt to wash the guilt of proliferating nuclear weapons by associating the name of Benazir Bhutto to lend a semblance of respectability to a crime that brought huge embarrassment and inflicted incalculable damage to Pakistan, Senator Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.
Farhatullah Babar said that public memory was not so short as to forget the public apology tendered by AQ Khan on national television in February 2004 in which he acknowledging nuclear proliferation also admitted his guilt thus: “I have much to answer for it”.
Expressing “the deepest sense of sorrow, anguish and regret” over what he had done Dr Khan had also admitted in his infamous TV appearance, “The investigation has established that many of the reported activities did occur and that these were inevitably initiated at my behest”.
Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the so-called disclosure by Dr Khan at this point of time was a futile attempt to wash his guilt by seeking to associate Benazir Bhutto in his crime.
It is disgusting that almost a decade later Dr Khan should be seeking to restore his image by laying the blame at the door of Shaheed Bibi when the latter is no longer alive, Senator Babar said. But while one may pity the twists and turns of a guilt-laden conscious it should not be forgotten that the stern laws of nature seldom pause for pity, the senator said.
Dr Khan would do well to re-read his February 2004 public statement on national television and remember that the words and sentences he uttered on that fateful day can never be recalled, he added.
In an interview to a private media group, Dr Khan had alleged that Benazir Bhutto had asked for the transfer of nuclear technology to two countries that she had named.
Responding to different questions, Khan said that the transfer of nuclear technology was not so easy that one could put it into his pocket and hand it over to another country. “At least 800 people are used to supervise the process. The then prime minister Benazir Bhutto summoned me and named the two countries which were to be assisted and issued clear directions in this regard,” Khan said. “I was not independent but was bound to abide by the orders of the prime minister, hence I did take this step in compliance with her order. The prime minister would have certainly known about the role and cooperation of the two countries, mentioned by her, in our national interest,” he explained.