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ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: PML-N Senator and former finance minister Ishaq Dar told the Senate on Friday that former army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg had "rudely" and vainly tried in the early 1990s to persuade the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif to sell nuclear technology to Iran.
However, the PML-N parliamentary leader endorsed the government's assertion that none of its institutions or any past civilian government was involved in nuclear proliferation.
Speaking during a debate on President Musharraf's address to parliament last month, Mr Dar, however, said if an individual scientist was involved in proliferation, as admitted by Dr A.Q. Khan, the same could have been done by an army individual.
The PML-N leader rejected as a "lie" Gen Beg's reported denial of ever advising the government to transfer nuclear technology to another country. While declining to go into details for what he called reasons of national security, Mr Dar said the general once came to Mr Sharif and tried to persuade him "rather rudely" to sell nuclear technology to Iran. But Mr Sharif rejected the suggestion and told the general to "go away", the Senator said without specifying the date of the meeting.
Mr Dar lambasted President Musharraf's policies ranging from what he saw as a costly support for the US-led "war against terrorism" - as evident in military operations in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and checks on Kashmiri militants - to the military's perceived interest in real estate.
But he called for national unity to protect the country's nuclear deterrence as well as economic interests in the face an "unequal globalization". "We must stand up for our interests. It is time for a national consensus," he added.
MUSIC TO OPPOSITION EARS: Earlier, former information minister Mushahid Hussain of the ruling PML-Q called for a unified national policy on the nuclear question and rejected suggestions about involvement of the military and President Musharraf in nuclear proliferation.
In comments that could be a pleasing music to opposition ears, he said martial law had never served national interests and advocated a tolerant policy of "live and let live" in a democratic setup that could make Pakistan a free and prosperous democratic Muslim state as envisioned by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Mushahid Hussain, the main ruling party speaker in Friday's two sittings in which 13 members spoke on the president's Jan 17 speech, said mere parliament and elections were no solution. "We should have democracy in our mind-set."
OPPOSITION-CHAIRMAN ROW: The first sitting before the Friday prayers was briefly marred by an opposition row with Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro for allowing Mr Kamil Ali Agha (PML-Q) to speak for more than his allotted time and lambaste both the PPP and PML-N for what he called undemocratic policies they followed when in power.
Mr Raza Rabbani of the PPP said since Mr Kamil Agha was allowed to speak for 37 minutes - a duration disputed by the chair - the opposition would not be bound by a previously agreed formula under which a maximum of 30 minutes had been allotted to party leaders and 15 minutes to others.
"The house will not run like this," said the Senator, who acts as the de facto opposition leader as a nominee of the 22-seat Democratic Alliance though the chairman has not named as such while a counter-claim to the office by the 21-seat Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal is also pending.
"How" (the house will not run)? asked Mr Soomro. "That we will tell," responded Mr Rabbani.
As this row before the end of the first sitting was cut short by interruptions by some other senators wishing to clarify some points, Mr Kamil Agha also became the target of opposition shouts of "lota, lota", after Mr Dar challenged his right to denounce the performance of a set-up of which he was part at the time. But there was also counter-shouting from the treasury benches in support of Mr Kamil Agha.
As the house recessed for Friday prayers, Mr Rabbani filed an amendment to the government motion for expressing the Senate's "gratitude to the president of Pakistan" for his Jan 17 speech, an opposition source said.
The source said the amendment sought to replace the words "the president of Pakistan" with "Gen Pervez Musharraf", in line with the Democratic Alliance's refusal to recognise the general as an elected president.
Initiating debate in the afternoon session, PML-Q member Naeem Chatta emphasized the need for implementing the promises of good governance and elimination of corruption. He also called for constructing new water reservoirs on war footings.
