ISLAMABAD, April 14: Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on Wednesday informed the Senate that Pakistan being a sovereign state always guarded its independence and would never tolerate foreign interference in its internal affairs.
The minister said this while opposing an adjournment motion jointly moved by parliamentary leaders of the PPP and PML-N, Senators Raza Rabbani and Ishaq Dar, respectively, concerning the conditional pardon granted to nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro ruled the adjournment motion out of order. "We greatly regard our independence and sovereignty and do not tolerate any external interference in the issues of national security," Mr Kasuri said, adding "we always take strategic decisions independently in the best interest of the country."
He explained that Dr Khan was accorded pardon with the condition that he would cooperate with the government agencies and added that he was cooperating in the proliferation case. He said the pardon also pertained to what had been mentioned in the FIR registered against Dr Khan.
The minister emphasized that Dr Khan had made immense contribution in achieving strategic parity with India which helped maintain a balance of power between the two countries. At the same time, he maintained, Pakistan was also mindful of its international obligations regarding nuclear non-proliferation.
Mr Kasuri brushed aside the impression that Pakistan had surrendered to the US diktat on the matters of national security. He said there were issues on which Pakistan was cooperating with the US while there were many other issues on which it was not supporting the US policies.
He referred to the issue of Afghanistan in which the government had acted keeping in view the public interest. He further said that Pakistan had never sent its troops to Iraq and had not even supported the US resolution on Iraq in the Security Council.
"Pakistan always extend support to US when its own interest demands so," he explained. He, however, argued that it was not wise to confront the US because it was a superpower and only a 'foolish' country would go in confrontation with it.
Earlier, Mr Raza Rabbani said the motion pertained to a 'blatant' and 'open interference' by America in the internal matters of Pakistan to which the latter was succumbing.
He recalled that on Feb 5 President Pervez Musharraf addressed a press conference in which he granted pardon to Dr Khan without ifs and buts. But on Feb 6, US Secretary of State Colin Powell talked to the president and on Feb 7, the Foreign Office spokesman announced that the pardon was conditional while on Feb 9 the spokesman again stated that it was not a 'blanket' pardon.
"These two statements of the FO spokesman originating after the phone calls of Colin Powell were in contradiction to what the president had said earlier at his press conference," he maintained. Senator Rabbani also asked as to why the pardon was granted if the inquiry against Dr Khan was not completed yet.
AFP ADDS: Meanwhile, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said that Pakistan was sharing information from a probe into proliferation by Dr Khan but refused to confirm reports that he (Dr Khan) had seen three nuclear bombs in North Korea.
According to a report in The New York Times on Tuesday, Dr Khan told interrogators he was shown the devices at a secret underground plant when he visited North Korea five years ago.
"I have seen the report," the spokesman said at his weekly news briefing, but he declined to elaborate, adding only: "I would not like to go into specifics." He said: "We have been sharing information with the international community and other countries who have a direct interest in this matter."