Press Trust of India Posted online: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 at 1633 hours IST Updated: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 at 2103 hours IST
New York, September 21: President Pervez Musharraf has said he would not allow American investigators to question Pakistan's disgraced scientist A.Q. Khan who provided nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Musharraf in an interview to The New York Times said he had succeeded in breaking up Khan's network but was not certain if the full extent of the scientist's activities had been discovered.
"I'm 200 per cent sure that it has been shut down," the General said of Khan's network. "But if you say whether I am sure over what he's provided in the past, no sir, I'm not, I can't say surely that he has honoured everything that he has done." American intelligence officials, the Times said, believe that the three countries -- Iran, Libya and North Korea -- may have accounted for less than 50 per cent of the network's customers.
Musharraf rejected charges that his government had denied US investigators the chance to question Khan, whom he pardoned, saying the Americans never requested this.
Asked what would be the response if they did ask, Musharraf said, "We wouldn't let them. That would show a lack of trust in ourselves. I mean, we must trust our own agencies."
During the hour-long interview, Musharraf indicated that he may renege on his pledge to step down as Army Chief by the end of this year and claimed that Pakistan was making significant progress in dealing with al-Qaeda, ending the terrorist network's illicit fund-raising and breaking up its long-established bases in remote border areas.
About his promise to serve only as the country's civilian President after December 31, the General said, "Yes, I did give my word that I would... But the issue is now far greater than this."
Musharraf, who is here to attend the UN General Assembly, asked pointedly, "How did General de Gaulle continue in uniform all through his period as President of France, and France is a democratic country?"
