Islamabad: Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan "collapsed and sought clemency" from President Pervez Musharraf after it was found that he tried to leak details of his country's nuclear programme through a letter to his daughter.
Khan, during his interrogation by Pakistani authorities on his clandestine nuclear deal, had written a letter to his daughter and another to Iranians, which were intercepted, a Pakistani Army officer told a media briefing in Washington, "The News" daily reported on Wednesday.
"Khan was adamant to disclose anything before his letters were intercepted but when he was confronted with his own handwriting and the likelihood that his own daughter becoming a target of British or US agencies because she 'carried' sensitive information about the Pakistan's programme, he collapsed and asked for clemency from President Musharraf," he said.
According to a media report, Lt Gen Khalid Khan, chief of Pakistan's Strategic and Plan Division, is at present in Washington trying to clear the stigma of nuclear proliferation against his country. The officer was reportedly himself involved in debriefing of the nuclear scientist.
Musharraf has also referred to these letters in his memoirs 'In the Line of Fire' but Khan's daughter has questioned the claim saying that it was yet another attempt to discredit her father.
The officer, who has not named by 'The News', said Khan's letter to his daughter was so detailed that it disclosed "everything" about Pakistan's nuclear programme.
As per the plan, Khan's daughter was to hand over the letter to British journalists to give his account on the nuclear proliferation issue, he said. Copies of that letter were also sent to Europe by his family to be used just in case something happened to Khan, he said.
The Pakistan officer said Khan's daughter had carried the letter to London but had not handed it over to journalists there for publication.
He claimed that whatever Khan had been doing was not known to the Pakistani authorities as he had been given a blank cheque and a free hand to import or export anything. "This was not only a failure of Pakistani intelligence but also a massive failure of international intelligence," he said.
Musharraf pardoned Khan after he confessed over state television in 2004 that he proliferated the sensitive technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Khan was once regarded a national hero for helping Pakistan to acquire the nuclear technology to match that of India's nuclear programme.
Since then, Khan has been confined to a bungalow in Islamabad. He recently underwent a surgery for prostrate cancer in Karachi.
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