Aziz under fire for secret nuke site visits

Pakistan Finance Minister Shoukat Aziz’s visit to secret nuclear weapons sites has come under attack from Opposition parties who allege...

Pakistan Finance Minister Shoukat Aziz’s visit to secret nuclear weapons sites has come under attack from Opposition parties who allege that the visit was aimed at ‘‘capping’’ the country’s nuclear programme ahead of President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to the US.

Raising the issue in the Senate yesterday, senior PML (N) leader Ishaq Dar said: ‘‘though Pakistan’s nuclear programme has reportedly been frozen long ago, this fresh visit by a federal minister to sensitive areas where even a civilian President could not go is a cause of an alarm for the entire nation’’.

Linking Aziz’s trip to the nuclear site to his forthcoming visit to the US, Dar, a former finance minister, said he too came under pressure from the Americans in the past on the nuclear issue, local daily The News reported.

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‘‘Every time a Pakistani finance minister visits US for discussion on financial matters, the Americans love to hear about details of the country’s nuclear programme,’’ he said.

Stating that the issue came up when he met the then US deputy treasury secretary in Bill Clinton administration, Dar said the us officials wanted to know details of Pakistani nuclear programme but he ‘‘snubbed’’ them saying ‘‘this was none of their business’’. Dar said he has also visited some nuclear sites in his capacity as finance minister but was not allowed to go beyond a point.

Criticising the Opposition for raising the issue of his visit to sensitive areas where then country’s nuclear weapons have been stockpiled, Aziz said they have done a ‘‘disservice’’ to the country by raising the issue at a public forum.

He said the country’s nuclear programme was in safe hands and ‘‘everybody must know that no compromise would be made’’. Besides the controversy over his visit to nuclear sites, Aziz also faced severe criticism from the Opposition for ‘‘tailor making his budget’’ to suit the World Bank and IMF.