& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

US to ask Musharraf about Khan's pardon

Pakistan seeks to put lid on nuke fiasco

AFP, United Nations
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that Washington accepted Pakistani leader Pervez Musharrafs decision to pardon a top nuclear expert who passed secrets on to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
But Powell added that he would raise the pardon of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, in talks with Musharraf in the days to come.
"This is a matter between Mr Khan, who is a Pakistani citizen, and his government. But it is a matter also that I’ll be talking to President Musharraf about," he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York yesterday.
"The action he took with respect to pardoning Mr Khan is something that he felt it was appropriate for him to do and he has explained his position thoroughly," Powell said.
"I expect to be talking to President Musharraf over the next several days to make sure that there is a full understanding of what the A
Q Khan network has done over the years so that there are no remnants of it left, and then there’s no possibility of further proliferating activities comingout of that network."
Powell said the desire to make sure there was no more proliferation was "goal number one with respect to his accountability."
Powell refused to be drawn by a reporter’s question about whether the pardon sent the wrong message to other would-be proliferators of sensitive nuclear technology and expertise.
"The biggest (proliferator) is now gone," the US diplomat said, "so I think that is a remarkable success."
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the Khan affair indicated that nuclear proliferation is "alive" and said that Musharraf was faced with a "difficult situation" because of Khan’s hero status to many in the country.
"There has been quite a lot of black market activities that we have not been aware of or have not been able to contain,"Annan said.
Admitting that it "sounds rather odd" to have pardoned Khan amid efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, Annan said: "Obviously the president of the country has to manage his own national situation."
He added: "What is important is the commitment that they are going to plug the loopholes and deal with everyone involved severely."
Meanwhile, Pakistan yesterday sought to quell international criticism for pardoning the man at the centre of a nuclear information trading scandal by insisting the ongoing investigation was an "internal matter."
"The investigations in Pakistan are an internal matter and cannot be raised in any other forum," foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan said in an interview with state-run Pakistan Television on Saturday.
The decision to charge and then pardon Khan provoked a storm of international criticism, raising concerns that Pakistan has sent a negative message to other would-be proliferators.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday he would ask Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf about the pardon.
But Powell stressed that the clemency for Khan was a domestic question for Musharraf, who has emerged as a key US ally since the September 11,2001 attacks on theUnited States.
"This is a matter between Mr Khan, who is a Pakistani citizen, and his government. But it is a matter also that I'll be talking to President Musharraf about," Powell told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
The top US diplomat said "goal number one" was making sure that no more sensitive nuclear details were passed on by any Pakistani scientists, including Khan, dubbed by Powell as the "biggest" of all nuclear proliferators.