ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: The government has received the report of a special audit of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) to ascertain how much money has so far been spent on the country's nuclear programme , a source in the KRL told Dawn. The audit was undertaken on the directives of the National Command Authority (NCA), the source said.

KRL Chairman Javed Ashraf Mirza, the source said, had been directed to prepare a complete report about projects commissioned in the KRL under the nuclear programme. The KRL chief prepared the report within three days of receiving the directive and presented it to the NCA chief, the source added.

There have been a number of media reports about the cost of the country's nuclear programme spread over 28 years. During a TV interview after the test-firing of the Ghauri missile some time ago, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had said that the cost of the nuclear programme was less than the amount spent on the purchase of F-16 planes.

Former army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg, in an interview with a magazine, had put $250 million as the total cost of the programme. The magazine quoted Gen Beg as saying: "Everything was accounted for; so much money was given and so much enriched uranium was produced.

I remember such a balance-sheet presented when I was the chief of the army staff and Benazir was the prime minister. Would you believe that the total amount which was spent on the nuclear programme between 1976 and 1990 was less than $250 million, including foreign payments.

Nobody believes that it was so inexpensive to build nuclear weapons. Compare this to the price of one submarine which was obtained from France, for $350 million."

When contacted, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan expressed ignorance about the audit. Talking to Dawn, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan denied that any special audit of the nuclear programme was conducted.