PAKISTAN Nuclear founder seeks forgiveness

The scientist accepted responsibility for proliferation actions, officials said.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The founder of Pakistan's nuclear program took full responsibility today for spreading weapons secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, and asked President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for forgiveness, the government said.
Abdul Qadeer Khan's apology, announced on national television, came after meetings in recent days with senior officials and signaled that the government would not prosecute him for his wrongdoing, intelligence sources told The Associated Press.
Khan told state-run PTV he had requested today's meeting with Musharraf at the president's office in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital, Islamabad.
Khan "accepts full responsibility for all the proliferation activities which were conducted by him during the period in which he was at the helm of affairs at Khan Research Laboratories," a government statement said. Khan founded the lab in the 1970s and headed it until retiring in 2001.
Plea for mercy
Khan requested that he be forgiven in a "mercy petition" to Musharraf, considering the services he had rendered to Pakistan's national security, the government said. The president told him the "entire nation had been severely traumatized" by the revelations of proliferation, according to the statement.
The president summoned a meeting for later today of the National Command Authority that controls Pakistan's nuclear assets, which was expected to decide on Khan's plea for mercy.
In a brief interview, Khan told PTV that Musharraf had been "extremely kind and understanding."
"We discussed this ongoing affair, the international campaign against Pakistan about nuclear matters," Khan said. "I explained ... the background on what was happening and what had happened, and he appreciated the frankness with which I gave him the details."
It was the first public statement by Khan since the investigation into the proliferation allegations began more than two months ago, but in the comments shown on PTV, Khan didn't make any admissions or apologies.
Television footage of the meeting showed a stony-faced Musharraf, wearing a camouflage jacket, speaking to a contrite-looking Khan.
Khan was sacked as a government adviser Saturday, and officials say he has confessed in a written statement to selling nuclear technology.