New Delhi, December 23, 2007 (DefenceIndia News Service)

Dispelling the notion that Islamabad’s nuke ambition had been circumscribed, top Pakistan scientist Samar Mubarakmand has revealed that the Pakistan’s nuclear programme has not been capped and the removal of scientist A Q Khan did not mean the government planned a rollback.

While speaking to Geo TV, Chairman of the National Engineering and Scientific Commission, Samar Mubarakmand also denied that infamous nuclear scientist A Q Khan had headed the team that carried out Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May 1998.

Mubarakmand said that he led the team which conducted the blasts and that Khan was not even a member of that team.

A Q Khan is currently under house arrest in Islamabad after he confessed to heading a clandestine proliferation network that sold nuclear know-how and equipment to countries like Libya and North Korea.

Asked what would happen if terrorists managed to capture Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, Mubarakmand said no one could use “nuclear weapons as their launching required a very complex technical system, including a code”. He said Pakistan was capable of safeguarding its weapons.

Meanwhile amid the international concerns about the safety of Pakistan’s strategic assets due to the political uncertainty in the country, President Pervez Musharraf has repeatedly asserted in recent days that his government has put in place an effective command and control system for the nuclear arsenal.

PTI