Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

1 Frontline Pakistan
approved a long-standing request from the Iranian government for
unpublicized cooperation in its ‘peaceful’ nuclear programme. But
the cooperation was limited to non-military spheres. The transfer of
technology is believed to have occurred in 1989. This was the period
when General Aslam Beg propounded his doctrine of ‘strategic
defiance’, which envisaged an anti-American alliance of Pakistan, Iran
and Afghanistan. The nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Pakistan
by the US administration in August 1990 provoked intense anti-
American sentiments among the Pakistani generals, who felt betrayed
by the American actions.
General Beg, who was the Chief of Army Staff from 1988 to 1991,
may not have been a doctrinaire Islamist like General Zia, but he
followed many of his policies. He was a highly controversial figure,
both in the army and outside. A migrant from the Indian state of Uttar
Pradesh, he provoked intense controversy by publicly criticizing Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to join the US-led coalition forces in
the 1990–1991 Gulf War. On a visit to Tehran during the same period,
he promised the Iranian leadership that the Pakistani leadership
would be willing to provide nuclear technology. Ishaq Dar, a senior
member of the Sharif cabinet, confirmed that Beg came back with an
offer from Tehran of $5 billion in return for nuclear know-how, but
Sharif rejected the offer. 34
In his confession to Pakistani investigators, Dr Khan had implicated
General Beg, among others, in the deal. The allegation was rejected
by the former army chief as malicious but, in the same breath, he
defended Dr Khan, saying there was nothing wrong with passing on
nuclear technology to other countries. 35 General Beg retired in August
1991 and was replaced by a moderate pro-West officer, General Asif
Nawaz, who stopped the deal with Iran. Consequently, Pakistan-Iran
relations were adversely affected and any cooperation in the nuclear
field would have been completely ruled out.
Dr Khan was believed to have travelled to Iran several times in
the late 1980s and early 1990s. He claimed that centrifugal uranium
enrichment plants were exported to Iran through a middleman and
that Pakistan air force planes were used to ferry the goods to Dubai,
from where they were taken to their final destination. Drawings and
other nuclear materials were also transferred abroad secretly. 36 Most
of the transactions took place through a Dubai-based Sri Lankan
middleman, Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, who was arrested by Malaysian
police in February 2004. Tahir, who also lived in Malaysia, told the