June 21, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 16, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 20: The Foreign Office on Friday rejected media reports that the country’s nuclear blueprints were available in the international black market and that they were accessed by foreign scientists.

It expressed surprise over a report that the country’s nuclear weapons plans had been sent abroad by its former top nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Dr Khan, who had confessed in 2004 to having transferred sensitive technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, told Dawn on Friday that he had never been involved in smuggling nuclear weapons and secrets, but he had confessed under pressure.

“An international network which had been actively working even before Pakistan started its nuclear programme is responsible for selling nuclear technology even today in the international market,” he said.

The report issued this week by former UN arms inspector David Albright alleged that Dr Khan’s network had also sold a digital blueprint for a small nuclear warhead. The blueprint was allegedly discovered on a computer seized from three Swiss brothers accused of smuggling for the network.

The Swiss government said it had destroyed the files seized from Swiss scientist Urs Tinner for reasons of security and international relations after federal prosecutors discovered that they contained construction plans for nuclear weapons, uranium enrichment equipment and guided-missile systems.

“It is not understood how anyone could reach such a conclusion. The entire story raises a number of questions. If Tinners’ files have relevance to Dr Khan then why were they destroyed? The files should have been shared with Pakistan if they were genuine and relevant to Dr Khan,” the Foreign Office spokesman said in a statement.

“Dr. A.Q. Khan’s case is closed as he does not have any official status and in no manner whatsoever he can indulge in nuclear proliferation. All relevant information of the case has already been shared with the IAEA and there is no new development in this context,” the spokesman added.

On the other hand, Dr Khan said no one had copied the designs of the country’s nuclear facility. “They were entirely my own designs and they were in safe hands of the KRL (Khan Research Laboratories),” he said.

He said he had not upgraded the design of the bomb at any stage and the one detonated in 1998 was the same that he had first designed in 1988.