07 February 2004	Saturday	15 Zilhaj 1424

KARACHI, Feb 6: The chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party (Shaheed Bhutto), Ms Ghinwa Bhutto, on Friday expressed concern over alleged transfer of nuclear secrets from Pakistan to other countries and called for adopting dispassionate approach to the whole question.

Referring to recent reports about the alleged involvement of some nuclear scientists in proliferation, for 'monetary gains,' Ms Bhutto said the people were not satisfied with the explanations given by the government functionaries. The people don't trust the explanations given by the 'secret' agencies on the issue, she claimed.

Ms Bhutto, talking to Dawn, spoke of the gap in the perception of the people and that of the government on proliferation issue, and slammed "apologetic" stance of the government vis-a-viz the US and the West. She said that Pakistan had not signed any treaty on non-proliferation and yet it was behaving so submissively as it was treaty-bound to do so.

She said that if Dr Qadeer Kahn was guilty of corruption and swindling money, then the National Accountability Bureau should have acted, but that was not done, suspecting that the government was trying to hide something under the rug.

She said that without a strong will, only nuclear power would not provide any security to the people and the country.

She recalled former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's role in making the country a nuclear power and said that strategic decisions be taken according to aspirations of the people and fully involving them in decision making.

She said the crisis had caused irreparable damage to Pakistan's image abroad and its integrity was under threat.