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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Pakistan nuclear scientist says more revelations to come

Pakistan nuclear scientist says more revelations to come
ISLAMABAD, May 29 (AFP) May 29, 2008
Pakistan's disgraced atomic scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said on Thursday that there would be further revelations to come about the country's nuclear proliferation scandal.

Khan, regarded as the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, said in a televised confession in February 2004 that he had run a network that passed atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan but has kept him under house arrest ever since. Musharraf has denied any state involvement in the episode but refuses to let foreign investigators question Khan.

In a rare interview with a television station the day after the 10th anniversary of Pakistan's first nuclear tests, Khan said that most of the facts about the scandal were widely known.

But when asked what was yet to be revealed, Khan told Dawn News television: "They will be out, there are some things -- they will be out in time, when an appropriate time is there."

Khan said that there were certain subjects he could not talk about because of the "national interest".

The scientist told AFP last month that he took the blame for exporting nuclear secrets in order to "save his country."

Khan, who was treated for prostate cancer in 2006, told Dawn that Musharraf and his allies were to blame for Pakistan's current troubles.

"The team leader is to be responsible for the members of the team. But all those who were with him, they did not assert themselves and they did not do the proper job -- all those scandals," Khan said.

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