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Scientist's wealth raised eyebrows:Pakistani officials

Warnings from fellow scientists about the father of Pakistan's nuclear program and his ostentatious wealth raised suspicions Abdul Qadeer Khan was selling weapons technology abroad years before the government was compelled to take action against him, officials say.

Scientists who worked in Pakistan's covert program to build a nuclear deterrent against rival India had warned the government even before its first bomb test in 1998 that Khan was involved in suspect activity, a government official said, speaking Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

The official's comments revealed that Pakistan had internal information about Khan's suspect activities far in advance of his admission last week of nuclear transfers to Iran, Libya and North Korea, all of which are designated as sponsors of terror by the US State Department.

After President General Pervez Musharraf took power in 1999, suspicions over Khan's activities prompted him to tighten controls on the nuclear program and in March 2001 to fire Khan from his top post at the laboratory that enriched uranium for the bomb.

Khan was installed instead in a ceremonial position as government adviser.

But Khan, who has a number of residences around the capital, Islamabad, and is reported to have a hotel in Mali, was only publicly exposed as profiting from the illicit nuclear trade after information provided by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency in November indicated a Pakistani connection to the nuclear black market.

After a two-month Pakistani probe, Khan was faced with documentary evidence of his involvement in spreading nuclear hardware and designs to Iran, Libya and North Korea, forcing him to seek clemency to avoid prosecution.

Musharraf told The New York Times in an interview published on Tuesday that he couldn't act earlier against Khan because he didn't have enough evidence to make the politically sensitive arrest of the scientist -- regarded as a national hero in Pakistan.

"It was extremely sensitive," Musharraf said. "One couldn't outright start investigating as if he's any common criminal."

The government official said Khan would be allowed to keep his wealth "untouched" as a result of a pardon granted Thursday by Musharraf -- although the government has yet to make such an announcement.

Musharraf's pardon is viewed by many as a strategy to avoid a public prosecution of Khan that could have exposed official involvement in nuclear transfers.

The government denies it ever authorized such transactions, saying Khan was given a large amount of autonomy to build the bomb using clandestine suppliers after the nuclear program got started in the mid-1970s.
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