• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Pak FM rules out "foreign intervention"

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, April 14, IRNA -- Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid 
Mehmood Kasuri said Pakistan as a sovereign state will not allow any 
foreign intervention in its internal matters. 
"Pakistan will not tolerate any interference in its internal 
affairs," the minister told the Pakistani Senate while speaking on an 
adjournment motion moved in its chamber by Raza Rabban, Ishaque Dar 
and other members of the opposition on Wednesday. 
"We take all decisions independently in the best interest of the 
country," he added. 
He also said Dr. A.Q. Khan was accorded pardon in the nuclear 
proliferation case on the condition that he will cooperate with 
government agencies investigating the proliferation issue. 
"Dr. Khan is still cooperating with the government in this 
regard." 
Dr. Khan, he said, has contributed immensely to making the 
country a nuclear power and bringing it at par with India, a fact 
which has "helped maintain the balance of power" between the two 
countries. 
Referring to comments of US Secretary of State Colin Powell in 
an interview on the subject of the conditional pardon granted to Dr. 
Khan, he said the view was his own as "Americans and other countries 
are also facing great pressure from their societies on the nuclear 
proliferation issue." 
However, he said Pakistan`s decision to grant amnesty to Dr. 
Khan was an independent decision made by the president keeping in view
all legal requirements. 
"Pakistan takes its strategic decisions independently without any 
foreign intervention," he said, and referred to his country`s policy 
on Iraq. 
Pakistan always keeps its interests supreme and to prove this 
point it decided not to send troops to Iraq and did not support 
the US resolutions on Iraq in the UN Security Council, he added. 
Critics lashed out at an interview of Powell published in an 
English daily in which he said Dr. Qadeer Khan had been given 
conditional amnesty on the nuclear proliferation issue. 
They said the interview was a clear intervention on the internal 
affairs of Pakistan and had harmed Pakistani sovereignty. 
"All political parties are against nuclear proliferation but we 
will not allow any other country to interfere in our internal 
affairs," the foreign minister stressed. 
TK/TSH/LS/210 
End