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ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The government assured the Senate on Monday that no harm would be allowed to come to Pakistan's nuclear assets from the current interrogation of scientists and other officials connected with its nuclear programme that it said was being done to allay international concerns.
The assurance by Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed came after several opposition members of the upper house voiced concern over reports that intelligence agencies had picked up five more senior officials of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) on Saturday night for what the government calls "debriefing".
"It is correct eight persons are being interrogated," the minister confirmed, rejecting an estimate of 20 given by Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, and explained that it was being done to meet concerns expressed by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Four of them are scientists, one technician and three retired army officers, he said, without specifying who was picked up when in a saga of interrogations that began in November last year.
REPLY TO IAEA: "A reply to IAEA's notice is being prepared," the minister said, referring to concerns the agency has expressed about possible transfer of nuclear technology, particularly after its recent probe of Iran's nuclear programme.
He said the Pakistan government wanted to assure the world that it was opposed to nuclear proliferation and would in "no way" compromise its nuclear programme or let any harm come to its scientists. "But if some people - one or two - were found to have acted out of greed, we will take a decision (about them)," the minister said, echoing similar remarks made in recent weeks by a government spokesmen about the interrogations centred on personnel of the KRL, formerly headed by Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Mr Ahmed denied news reports that the intelligence agencies had also raided Dr Khan's residence in Islamabad in the latest round-up, and said the government accorded respect to the scientist who was still a special adviser to the prime minister on strategic programmes.
The matter was first raised by Prof Ghafoor Ahmed through a point of order at the start of the proceedings in the evening of what was a private members' day, and was picked up by several other opposition members, including MMA's Prof Khurshid Ahmed and PPP parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani, who called for a debate in the house, even if it were in-camera, to discuss the IAEA letter to the government about the matter.
DEMAND FOR DEBATE: But there was no indication if the government would prefer or avoid such a debate, though leader of house Wasim Sajjad said it was not mandatory to present the IAEA letter in the house.
The information minister said feelings of the treasury benches were the same as those of opposition benches. "We ourselves are preparing our case to defend our sensitive institutions from an evil eye."
Mr Ahmed maintained that Pakistan's move was aimed at silencing critics and safeguarding the country from what he called "some foes in the guise of friends" who did not want to see the country as a nuclear power. Despite a brief keen discussion on the nuclear question, Monday was an unusually smooth day in the history of the present Senate.
