Pakistan fires top nuclear scientist

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's most prominent nuclear weapons scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was fired from his government job Saturday after investigators concluded that he made millions of dollars from the sale of nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya, officials said.

The wealth that Khan accumulated during 30 years as a government servant, on a salary estimated now at $2,000 per month, is part of evidence that officials say led Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, to conclude that he had no choice but to take action against Khan, the flamboyant, European-trained metallurgist who is widely regarded as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb.

Khan, 67, counts among his assets four houses in Islamabad, a palatial lakeside retreat in the nearby village of Bani Gala, ownership shares in two restaurants and a hotel in Timbuktu, Mali, that he named for his wife, who is of Dutch ancestry, according to Pakistani investigators.

The decision to dismiss Khan from his post as a science adviser to the prime minister came at a meeting Saturday morning of the National Command Authority, which is comprised of senior military and civilian officials and is chaired by Musharraf.

But Musharraf postponed a decision on whether to pursue criminal charges against Khan, who investigators say routed blueprints and other technical assistance to Iran and Libya by means of a nuclear black market in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai and -- in the case of Iran -- through a program to promote nonmilitary nuclear technology. At least one other nuclear scientist, Mohammed Farooq, is accused of helping Khan in the scheme.

Khan has been ordered to remain at home as investigators complete their work, officials said. Farooq, whose family maintains his innocence, is among five other current or former lab officials still being held at undisclosed locations.

Musharraf is under heavy domestic pressure to go easy on Khan, who is considered a national hero for his pivotal role in developing the uranium-enrichment technology that allowed the country to achieve nuclear parity with archrival India.

At the same time, Musharraf is eager to remain on good terms with the United States and to demonstrate Pakistan's commitment to curbing the spread of nuclear weapons technology, in part by showing that he takes the allegations against Khan and other scientists seriously.

Pakistan launched its investigation in November after the International Atomic Energy Agency turned up evidence that some of its scientists had helped Iran and Libya design centrifuges used to make enriched uranium.

Among those present at Saturday's meeting was Lt. Gen. Ehsanul Haq, the head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, who presented the case against Khan at the meeting and said firing him would "would go a long way in establishing" Pakistan's "credibility with the IAEA," according to a participant.

The same official quoted Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali as telling the group, "We must tell the world that Pakistan at no cost would allow irresponsible scientists to run its nuclear program."

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