Hush hush is best policy, says General

‘‘The UN Security Council will immediately impose sanctions against us. Next we will be asked to sign the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) and CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) and roll back. Then we will be declared a rogue state and finally our vital interests would come under imminent physical danger.’’

He directly referred to former Army chief Aslam Beg as a ‘‘pseudo-intellectual’’ for his admission in recent interviews that uranium enrichment was scaled down drastically in 1989 after a decision by the then National Command Authority (NCA) to escape the allegations of proliferation.

Musharraf, who was a junior to Beg at that time, said no NCA existed then. In fact, the entire Pakistan nuclear programme was covert till he took over as Army chief in 1998.

Moreover, he said, General Beg’s admission that they scaled down the uranium programme showed that he along with Bhutto compromised with Pakistan’s policy of achieving minimum deterrence level with India.

For him, Musharraf said, Pakistan came first and everything else was secondary:

‘‘In the first place you (the media) should play a more responsible role in this matter. Secondly, even if, for the sake of argument, it is accepted that the government and the Army were involved in the affair, do you think it will serve our national interest to shout about it from the rooftop?’’.

Until 1998, the President, the Army Chief and scientists were running the nuclear programme, Musharraf said.

‘‘No one knew about this covert programme,’’ he said, but at the same he put the blame of proliferation squarely on the shoulders of Khan, whom he pardoned after the scientist openly admitted the illegal transfer of nuclear technology to several countries and absolved Beg and his successor Jahangir Karamat. He said both former Army chiefs had been questioned.

Musharraf told the editors meet that if there was any danger to Pakistan’s strategic assets, it was from ‘‘unprincipled scientists, unwise politicians and imprudent columnists and commentators.’’

He said this lot was trying to prove that Pakistan was not capable of possessing such assets and should, therefore, be deprived of these.

—(Press Trust of India)