WASHINGTON, Feb 27: President Pervez Musharraf has received "full acknowledgement" of Dr A.Q. Khan's activities and has conveyed them to the United States, says Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Mr Powell, who was briefing the Senate Budget Committee on Thursday on the Bush administration's budget proposals for foreign affairs, said he has held many conversations with President Musharraf on this issue and was satisfied with what he learned from him.
Explaining why Gen Musharraf had to pardon Dr Khan, Mr Powell said: "A.Q. Khan was seen as a national hero in Pakistan, and he occupies a special place in the life of the Pakistani people."
"President Musharraf is well aware of what Mr Khan has been doing. I've had many conversations with President Musharraf about this. I think he took a bold step, the right step, to uncover it all, and not hide from the reality of what A.Q. Khan had done," he added.
The US Secretary of State said that Gen Musharraf had received from Mr Khan "full acknowledgement of what he had done, and a lot of information." Mr Powell also defended President Musharraf's decision to give "a conditional pardon" to Dr Khan and said it was in the best interest of his country and of what the United States and Pakistan could do about Dr Khan's network.
"And then President Musharraf felt it was in the best interests of his country and of his government and of the process of uncovering everything we could about this network, for him to give a conditional amnesty to Mr Khan," said Mr Powell.
When Senator Don Nickles, a Republican from Oklahoma who chaired the hearing asked if Dr Khan had cooperated with the investigators, Mr Powell said: "He was cooperating." "Did Mr Khan cooperate with Gen Musharraf as far as saying, here's what I did," the senator asked again.
"Dr Khan cooperated with President Musharraf and with the Pakistani investigators who were pulling all this up - with assistance from us, because we had quite a bit of information we could provide to them," said Mr Powell.
"So we're getting a lot of information out of Mr Khan's openness now, and I expect we'll get a lot more as well. And it's important to note that the amnesty he was given was a conditional one, meaning he has to meet the conditions of the amnesty, which means full and open disclosure. And we are learning a lot from that," he added.
Sen Pete V. Domenici, a Republican from New Mexico, however, was not satisfied with Mr Powell's answers and said he was not sure if the Bush administration was doing enough to stop nuclear proliferation.
