ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has sent a letter to the ambassadors, consuls general and high commissioners of various countries to Islamabad , suspecting that the alleged nuclear technology transfer took place when General Pervez Musharraf was in charge of the country's nuclear control and command.

The letter, written by PPP Foreign Liaison Committee Chairman Munir Ahmed Khan and sent to the diplomats of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, the European Union, the Commonwealth, Canada and other countries, says: "A full debate is necessary to see whether the Pakistani scientists did export technology for personal greed or whether they are being made scapegoats to save Gen Musharraf and his clique."

The letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn, says that "it is hard to imagine that a bunch of Pakistani nuclear scientists, despite having stringent security measures at the Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL), were able to arrange the nuclear technology to any third country."

It further states: "It is to point out that under the Benazir Nuclear Doctrine enunciated in the beginning of 1989, one of the three principles of policy was no export of nuclear technology."

In 1988, Mr Khan said in the letter, when the PPP had assumed power, there had been a great international pressure on Pakistan to roll back its nuclear programme. He pointed out that the elected government of Benazir Bhutto had initiated talks with the players concerned and had arranged a consensus among the president, the prime minister and the armed forces, as well as the international community, to save the nuclear assets.

Mr Khan stated that it was necessary that the letter, written by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the Pakistan government, should be made public so that the people could know the facts behind the ongoing debriefing of the scientists. "The nation must know the exact dates when alleged export of nuclear technology took place."

The letter said it was suspected that the export of nuclear technology had taken place "when the first commando president of Pakistan Gen Musharraf was the army chief and later chief executive." However, it said, the regime was refusing to release details, causing more suspicions to arise.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Khan said his claim regarding "Benazir Nuclear Doctrine" had been confirmed by the then army chief, Mirza Aslam Beg. He ridiculed the statement of Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed that the nuclear programme had been rolled back during Benazir's government. He asked that if it had been rolled back by the PPP government, then how in 1998 Pakistan had conducted the nuclear tests.