Afghan Minister says Pakistan dumped nuclear waste during Taliban regime; A.Q. Khan says he took the entire blame of the proliferation network to “save his country”
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    • Afghanistan’s Parliamentary Affairs Minster Faruq Wardag, speaking to the BBC, charged that nuclear waste from Pakistan was dumped in Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban. Wardag asserted that the waste was buried in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. He however stated that he did not have information as to how much waste was dumped or for how long the practice had gone on1.

    Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan has stated that he took the blame for passing atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in order to “save his country.” He added that the new Pakistani government had not contacted him about his release2.

    Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mohammad Sadiq announced that there would be no change to the National Command Authority (NCA) under the new government. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is overseen by the NCA headed by the president and with the prime minister as its vice chairman. Key cabinet ministers and the heads of the army, navy and air force are also members of the NCA, which controls all aspects of the country's nuclear program. However, the military manages and controls the nuclear weapons on behalf of the NCA3.

    In other developments, reports noted that President Pervez Musharraf was expected to call on his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia being held in China from April 11-15, 2008. The two sides were widely expected to discuss further expansion of civil nuclear cooperation4.

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