Qadeer Khan pardon

The improbability of the tale that Khan related in his confession has been compounded by the swiftness with which Musharraf has moved to exonerate him. Prior to the pardon, commentators wondered whether Khan was being made a fall-guy for Pakistan's nuclear proliferation programme. It is, after all, inconceivable that he acted alone without the knowledge of Pakistan's intelligence services and government.

Musharraf's pardon, together with his generous words of praise for Khan during Thursday's press conference, indicates that a deal of sorts has been struck, with Khan falling on his sword for the benefit of the rest of Pakistan's intelligence community, and Musharraf ensuring that the damage thereby suffered by Khan be kept to a minimum.

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This point of view is supported by Mohamed El Baradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who has categorically stated that "Khan was not working alone" and is merely "the tip of the iceberg."

So where do the events of this past week leave things? It is incontrovertible that Pakistan has been funneling nuclear technology to at least Iran, Libya and North Korea, and maybe others, for several years, contributing greatly to these countries' nuclear development. President Musharraf is doing all he can to try to convince the world community that these were the actions of one rogue individual which were not sanctioned at the highest levels of either the military or the government.

One thing that is certain is that the affair is far from closed. If the world is serious about nuclear non-proliferation than a thorough investigation into Pakistan's nuclear technology transfer programme is called for. Musharraf's attempts to sweep everything under the carpet cannot be the end of the matter. It is imperative that full details of the programme see the light of day, and that measures are put in place at the international level to check this kind of clandestine trade that threatens to further destabilise an already volatile world.