Pervez Musharraf's 2006 nuke technology disclosure embarrassed Pakistan: Foreign Office

Islamabad: Pakistan`s Foreign Office has said that the disclosure made by retired President General Pervez Musharraf in his 2006 autobiography that Dr.Abdul Qadeer Khan transferred sensitive nuclear material to North Korea was a big embarrassment for the country.

Briefing the Senate`s Foreign Relations Committee on Friday, representatives of the Foreign Office were quoted by the Dawn, as saying that Pakistan had to then accept that a disclosure had been made and give a standard response that it was firmly against nuclear proliferation.

A senior officer of the Foreign Office was quoted, as saying that the response was viewed internationally with scepticism and disbelief.

The Foreign Office reply came in response to a question by Senator Farhatullah Babar as to what was North Korea`s official reaction to Pervez Musharraf`s revelation in his memoir, In the Line of Fire, that a clandestine proliferation network operating from Pakistan had transferred nearly two dozen centrifuge machines, a flow meter and some special oils to North Korea.

"Had such an irresponsible disclosure been made by a civilian minister or a bureaucrat, he would have been sent to the gallows, but Musharraf got away with it because he was a general," Senator Farhatullah observed.

The official reaction to Pervez Musharraf`s disclosures would help this committee better understand "the nature and depth" of Pakistan-North Korea relations, he added.