Japanese firms played key role in Pak N-programme

Islamabad/Tokyo: In what could come as a major embarrassment to Japan's strident anti-nuclear stance, Japanese companies have been found to have played a key role in supplying at least 6,000 ring magnets and other materials to rogue Pakistani scientist A Q Khan.

This supply "knowingly or unknowingly" helped Islamabad to acquire nuclear capability and were incorporated in its supply framework, it emerged today.

"Japanese companies played a key role in supplying equipment used for Pakistan's nuclear development," Japan's Kyodo News reported, quoting the outcome of its investigations in Islamabad and Tokyo.

Comments by Khan and former employees of the companies reveal in detail for the first time how leading Japanese manufacturers knowingly and unknowingly helped Pakistan acquire nuclear capability and were incorporated into its supply framework.

Investigations revealed that both Khan and the head of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission visited Japan at least once in the 1980s to shop for their respective programmes.

Khan, dubbed the "father of Pakistan's nuclear programme," told Kyodo in a written interview that Khan Research Laboratories acquired a wide range of machines, laboratory equipment and metal products from Japan.