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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (48942)	8/24/2005 4:35:36 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Musharraf says scientist gave centrifuges to North Korea (Updated at 2130 PST) ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has confirmed that the country's disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan provided North Korea with centrifuges for uranium enrichment, his spokesman said Wednesday. But military ruler Musharraf, who made the statement to Japan's Kyodo news agency, insisted that the equipment handed over by Khan did not in itself give the Stalinist state a nuclear weapons capability. "Yes, he passed centrifuges -- parts and complete. I do not exactly remember the number," Musharraf said when asked about reports that Islamabad had told Tokyo that Khan provided North Korea with about 20 centrifuges. Musharraf's chief spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, confirmed the president had made the comments. In February 2004 Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, admitted selling atomic secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran. He said he acted without government or military support. Khan is already known to have supplied Tehran and Tripoli with centrifuge parts. Centrifuges are used for producing enriched uranium, which can be fuel for civilian nuclear power reactors or the raw material for nuclear bombs. North Korea is locked in a stand-off with the international community over its atomic programme and it declared in June that it has a stockpile of nuclear weapons and is producing more. Musharraf said Khan's help would not have been decisive for North Korea's efforts to become a nuclear power, because he was not involved in other crucial areas of technology. "So if North Korea has made a bomb... Dr. A.Q. Khan's part is only enriching the uranium to weapons grade," Musharraf told Kyodo. "He does not know about making the bomb, he does not know about the trigger mechanism, he does not know about the delivery system." To obtain those things, the North Koreans "must have got it themselves or somewhere else -- not from Pakistan," he added. Pakistan has consistently refused to let international investigators question Khan. The scientist has been officially pardoned by Musharraf but he has remained under virtual house arrest since late 2003. However Musharraf's spokesman said Pakistan had already informed the UN nuclear agency and other "affected" countries about the centrifuges, and he too played down the importance of the equipment. "Saying that someone made a bomb because Khan passed on a couple of centrifuges to them, maybe a dozen of them, this does not mean they can make a bomb," he told to foreign media. "There are so many other things involved in making a bomb. Whether they have got a bomb yet we don't know." Six-party nuclear talks on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, also involving the United States, South Korea, Russia, China and Japan, are due to resume in the week of August 29. On Monday the International Atomic Energy Agency said that enriched uranium particles found in Iran were from smuggled Pakistani centrifuges, backing Iran's claims that it is not involved in enrichment work. The United States says such activity would show that Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (48942)	8/24/2005 4:37:29 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

CEC holds election null & void in Swabi, Nowshera (Updated at 2050 PST) ISLAMABAD: Acting Chief Election Commissioner, Justice (R) Abdul Hameed Dogar has declared the polling null and void at seven polling stations in Swabi and Nowshera districts for refraining women to casts their votes in first phase Local Government Elections on August 18. "The CEC has declared the poll held on 18th August, 2005 as null and void at seven polling stations of Nowshera and Swabi districts where women voters were not allowed to cast their votes," said Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, Secretary Election Commission in a statement on Wednesday. The CEC in his order stated, it is a fundamental right of every citizen who has been registered as a voter to exercise his or her right of franchise freely and that this right, being inherent in every registered voter, cannot be foregone and forsaken on any ground whatsoever or by any person how high-so-ever, he may be. "Refraining from voting, impeding or preventing from exercise of franchise is an electoral offence," the Acting Chief Election Commissioner said. According to Secretary Election Commission, polling has been declared null and void in Jehangira-II and Pir Piai in district Nowshera and Pabini Union Council in Swabi district. In Union Council, Jehangira-II, Nowshera district the polling stations include polling station No. 5, Govt Girls High School, Jehangira (Female-II), polling station No. 6, Govt. Girls High School, Jehangira (Female-II) and polling station NO. 7 Govt. Girls Primary School, Jehangira (Female). In Union Council Pir Piai has been declared null and void at polling station No. 1 Govt. Girls High School, Pir Piai, polling station No. 2 Govt. Girls High School, Pir Piai and polling station No. 4 Govt. Girls Primary School, Pir Piai (CMS No.4) in Union Council, Pir Piai District Nowshera. In Union Council Pabini, District Swabi, the polling has been declared null and void at polling station Government Primary School, Malakabad (Pabini) Re-polling at above polling stations will be held on a date to be notified separately. Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar has also instructed District Police Officers, Nowshera and Swabi districts to initiate legal proceedings against the persons involved in the aforesaid illegal act of preventing women to cast their votes.