Pakistan Refuses Inspections

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has stated that Pakistan will never allow foreign inspectors to monitor its nuclear facilities and has no intention of freezing its nuclear or missile programmes.

"Why should Pakistan be expected to allow anybody to inspect?" Musharraf declared.
"We are not hiding anything ... what is the need of any inspection," he added.

Musharaff has also emphatically denied reports Pakistan had traded nuclear technology for North Korean ballistic missile technology, saying Pakistan paid cash for North Korean surface-to-surface missiles in 2002.

Musharraf on February 4 pardoned nuclear scientist Khan, considered a national hero in Pakistan for guiding the programme which built the country's nuclear bomb, after the scientist confessed to selling nuclear secrets.

The scandal has raised doubts about the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and has led to allegations that the Pakistani military was directly involved in proliferation.

But the Pakistani leader again insisted that Khan, together with six other scientists and officials currently in custody, acted alone in selling nuclear technology without the government's or the military's knowledge.