Pak achieved N-status due to ZA Bhutto: PPP

The party also demanded a Parliamentary investigation into the illicit export of nuclear technology by disgraced scientist AQ Khan.

Former Premier Benazir Bhutto-led PPP on Tuesday claimed that Pakistan achieved "nuclear status" due to the efforts of the party founder ZA Bhutto.

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The party also demanded a Parliamentary investigation into the illicit export of nuclear technology by disgraced scientist AQ Khan and others.

"Pakistan achieved nuclear status due to the efforts of Quaid-e Awam, ZA Bhutto, and missile technology due to the efforts of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto," the Pakistan Peoples Party said in a press release here.

The party said: "While it is not able to reveal the secrets that led to Pakistan acquiring nuclear status with missile delivery system, it knows that such status could not have been achieved by any scientist, no matter how talented, without the political support provided by the leadership."

It said the PPP was shocked by the confession by AQ Khan that he had violated the state policy and nuclear doctrine established in 1989 when then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto stipulated a ban on export of nuclear technology.

PPP believes those exported nuclear technology ... endangered the sovereignty, integrity and well-being of Pakistan," the party said and demanded Parliamentary investigation into the illicit export of nuclear technology.

"The PPP believes that by using the extradition treaty and international agreements against its political opponents, most notably Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari, the military dictatorship has opened itself to reciprocal demands," the party said.

The PPP has a "clear nuclear doctrine. This cannot be said for the Musharraf dictatorship whose regime took out a full-page ad in the media in July 2000 for the sale of nuclear components.

The military dictatorship has undermined Pakistan's nuclear programme with reckless adventurism and threatened the well-being of the country," it said.