Pakistan fires top nuclear scientist

Pakistan fired top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan as scientific adviser to the prime minister on Saturday amid a probe into the sale of nuclear technology to Iran and Libya.

Khan's sacking was announced just a few days after the US took possession of documents and equipment for some of Libya's nuclear weapon and missile programs. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in December pledged to abandon efforts to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

A government statement said Khan had "ceased to hold the office" of special adviser to the prime minister on the strategic program while a government body in charge of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and chaired by President Pervez Musharraf said it condemned "individual acts of indiscretions."

Pakistani experts and Western diplomats doubt whether top scientists could have traded secrets abroad without the knowledge of senior military and intelligence officials.

Khan's removal also comes amid increasing calls from the international community for wider access to Iran's nuclear facilities and less than a year after the US invaded Iraq on the premise it had weapons of mass destruction that posed an international threat.

Khan's fate is a sensitive issue in Pakistan, where he is revered as the "father" of the country's and the Islamic world's atomic bomb, seen by many Pakistanis as a vital deterrent to nuclear rival India.

The decision coincided with a meeting of the National Command Authority (NCA) that controls Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, is chaired by Musharraf and composed of military, political and scientific officials.

The military repeated earlier assertions from Musharraf that rogue scientists operating without official sanction must be blamed for any illegal proliferation of nuclear secrets.

"The NCA ... reiterated Pakistan's strong resolve and commitment in adherence to international agreements of non-proliferation," a statement said.

"The government condemns and distances itself in categorical terms from individual acts of indiscretion in the past."

Musharraf, a general who first took power in a bloodless October, 1999 coup, is a key US ally in its "war on terror."

He said earlier this month it appeared Pakistani scientists had sold nuclear secrets abroad.

Musharraf has said he would deal harshly with anyone found guilty "because they are the enemy of the state." Hours after his removal the military said Khan's security had been enhanced.

Western diplomats have said Pakistani scientists might also have sold nuclear technology to North Korea, which has been in the crisis spotlight since 2002 when US officials said Pyongyang had told them it was pursuing a secret nuclear program. North Korea denies saying such things.

The Pakistani investigation is nearing a conclusion. Khan, several of his colleagues and former military officers were questioned in recent weeks after a UN nuclear watchdog began looking into links between Pakistan's nuclear program and those of Iran and Libya.

Musharraf's critics say the military as a whole should be held accountable, not the odd scientist or mid-ranking officer who might have known of any black market nuclear secrets trade.

"He [Musharraf] has omitted to note the most critical factor ... the unaccountable status of the Pakistan army as the guardian of the nuclear program and its overbearing control of civil society," the weekly Friday Times said in an editorial.

The military statement said that since the formation of the NCA in February, 2000, no illegal peddling of nuclear technology had taken place there was "no chance" of future illegal trade.

But it added that Pakistan would not curtail its nuclear weapons program as a result of the investigation.