nuclear-news

Allegations of corruption against Pakistan’s nuclear scientist Khan

Pakistani nuclear scientist Khan accused of graft, The National, Tom Hussain, Jul 9, 2011 ISLAMABAD  The disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, allegedly embezzled money from the country’s clandestine programme, and sought to sabotage technology acquisition deals for personal financial interest, a former chief diplomat said.

“He siphoned off a lot of money from every deal,” said Akram Zaki, the secretary general to Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs from 1992 to 1993, and a former senator.

“And the deals in which he didn’t get his finger, he tried to scuttle … even if they were national-interest [projects].”

His comments, in a recent interview with The National, were made before a Washington Post report on Thursday saying Mr Khan had leaked 1998 documents purporting to show Pakistani generals accepted more than $3.5 million (Dh12.9m) in bribes to allow the export of nuclear weapons technology to North Korea.

Mr Khan, the founding father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, was arrested in December 2003 after a shipment of nuclear weapons-making equipment, bound for Libya, was seized off the coast of Egypt. He was pardoned after making a televised apology to Pakistanis, but kept under house arrest until 2009.

International investigators and Pakistani officials have said Mr Khan had illegally exported some 200 uranium enrichment centrifuges to Iran and North Korea…….http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/south-asia/pakistani-nuclear-scientist-khan-accused-of-graft.

July 9, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Pakistan, secrets,lies and civil liberties