US Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to visit Pakistan and meet President Pervez Musharraf soon to discuss the nuclear proliferation probe, a government official said yesterday. Powell spoke to Musharraf on Saturday by telephone about the sale of sensitive nuclear information by the country?s top scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, revered as the father of Pakistan?s nuclear bomb and pardoned by the government for his actions.

In a dramatic televised confession on Wednesday, Khan said he acted independently in leaking secrets as head of Pakistan?s nuclear programme from the 1970?s. His admission came after two months of an investigation by Pakistan. The English-language daily Dawn said Powell would visit this month, but the official said dates had yet to be fixed. Another local newspaper said Powell expressed US President?s concern about the role of Pakistani scientists in nuclear proliferation to Iran, Libya and North Korea and urged Pakistan to share more information. The News also said that in October, US Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, and Assistant Secretary of State, Christina Rocca, presented ?incredible evidence? to Musharraf about the leaking of nuclear secrets by its scientists. ?We were told that Pakistan?s failure to take action will most certainly jeopardise its ties with the U.S. and other important nations of the world,? the News quoted an official as saying.

The evidence provided by the USA included details of Qadeer Khan?s trips to the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Libya, Iran and North Korea; minute details of his meetings with nuclear black marketers; evidence of the sale of hardware and designs; and bank account details, the paper said. ?It seemed the Americans had a tracker planted on Dr A.Q. Khan?s body,? the paper quoted a Pakistani official as saying.

Tahir Ikram