Washington: Backtracking on the claims made in his just-released memoirs, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) did not pay money to the Pakistan government for handing over al-Qaeda suspects.
In an interview with a US television channel, Musharraf who read out a passage from his book In The Line of Fire that said, "Those who habitually accuse us of not doing enough in the war on terror should simply ask the CIA how much prize money it has paid to the government of Pakistan." CNN pointed out to General Musharraf that it had broached the CIA with how much prize money it has paid to the government of Pakistan.
On this the Pakistani President said, "You know, I don't know whether this is to the government of Pakistan. I don't think I wrote 'the government of Pakistan'." When pointed out that on Page 237 of his book he has in fact written this and asked if he wanted to revise it, Pakistani President said, "Yes. I think that if it is written 'government of Pakistan,' yes," he said.
"Certainly not the government, not the government no, government of Pakistan hasn't received anything," he said.
On Iran, Musharraf argued that Pakistan's development of the bomb was based on a security perspective, that Iran did not face this situation and hence should not go forward in getting one.
"We developed it because of our security perspective, because of our threat perception. We don't believe that there should be any more nuclear proliferation. And we don't think that Iran suffers from a threat perception that we suffered" Musharraf said.
Asked if Islamabad was opposed to Iran's going forward on this Musharraf replied, "We are against it. We would be against it".
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