Benazir will give IAEA access to A Q Khan

Islamabad, Sep 26: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto said she would allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to question disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, if she became Prime Minister.

She said her party would institute a parliamentary hearing into the matter, seeking to determine whether Dr Khan was solely responsible for what he had confessed to, or if there were ''others'' involved.

President Pervez Musharraf had granted a Presidential pardon to Dr Khan, known as the Father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, after he confessed to be a part of a nuclear black market, selling technologies to Libya and Iran.

Despite moves by the IAEA in this regard, Gen Musharraf resisted any inquiry into the matter by the international nuclear watchdog.

''Dr Khan had confessed that he had violated Pakistan's commitment to the international community. He fell on his sword,'' Daily Times reported Ms Bhutto as saying while addressing a seminar at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

UNI