In February 2004, when father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed to selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, media reports also suggested that Pakistan had given nuclear technology to North Korea in return for the missiles it bought from the communist state.

Talking to a group of Pakistani journalists in Washington over the weekend, Bhutto said Pakistan paid "cash" for these blueprints, but Pakistani authorities might have exchanged nuclear technology for missiles later, after the United States and other world powers slapped strict economic sanctions on Islamabad following the 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan. Bhutto's political rival, Nawaz Sharif, was in power then.

"It is quite possible that in 1998, when we were facing a financial crunch because of our nuclear tests, at that time this (exchange of nuclear technology for missiles) might have happened, but not by us.

"I was out of the government by then, but I have read press reports saying that this has been done. Rather, this has been indirectly admitted in Dr. A. Q. Khan's confession," said Bhutto while referring to Khan's televised confession of Feb. 6, 2004.

A State Department official, when asked for comments, said her "remarks were interesting" but declined further comments.

The former Pakistani prime minister said that in 1989 her government formed a missile technology board which produced short-range missiles that do not violate international restrictions on this technology.

Bhutto said in 1993, when she was going to North Korea as Pakistan's prime minister, Pakistani scientists working on the country's nuclear and missile programs asked her to bring blueprints of North Korean missiles that had a longer range than those Pakistan already had.

"These were not nuclear missiles but had the capability to carry nuclear weapons," said Bhutto.

She said these were blueprints for short- and medium-range missiles, which Pakistan's archrival, India, did not have at that stage. So initially she was reluctant to ask North Koreans for the blueprints of these missiles.

"I told them, our policy is to have parity with India, unless India tests those missiles, we should not. But I was told that we will not make these missiles. We will only make preparations," said Bhutto.

The former prime minister, whose father was hanged by a military ruler, Gen. Zia ul Huq, and who is now prevented from returning to Pakistan by another military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said there was a time when the Pakistani military depended on her for defense purchases.

"I was told, 'Only you can bring these blueprints; only you can bring F-16s from America; only you can bring Mirage aircraft from France. Look what they have done to me now," said Bhutto referring to the Musharraf government's policy that she could be arrested and tried for corruption if she returned home.

"I told the North Koreans: Give us missile technology. We should be prepared for (any threat). It was a cash transaction - no exchange of nuclear technology. Exchanging nuclear technology for missiles was never even discussed during my visit."

Bhutto recalled that her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, started Pakistan's nuclear program after the first nuclear test by India in 1974 and brought Khan from Holland to work on the project to make a nuclear bomb for his country.

She urged the Pakistani government to order an independent inquiry into the allegations against Khan because many in Pakistan still believe that he is a national hero who has been unfairly treated.

Bhutto said Khan played a key role in Pakistan's nuclear program for which the entire nation respected him.

"But it is a matter of great shame and disappointment that he appeared on the national television and confessed to selling Pakistan's nuclear secret in the black market."

Bhutto said there were people in Pakistan who believed that Khan was made a scapegoat and that it's "possible that he was ordered to do whatever he did."

"If this is true, then the people should know about it. This ambiguity can be cleared by holding an independent inquiry," said Bhutto, hoping that the current government will hold such an inquiry.

"If some people believe a national hero has been wrongly accused of what he has not done, they have a right to know the truth. If he has done what he is accused of doing, then he is wrong."

Although in the past Bhutto had said she was kept in the dark on Pakistan's nuclear program, she has now changed her stance.

Referring to a book written by a former official of the Pakistani military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, who claimed that the former prime minister was given "fake briefings" on Pakistan's nuclear program, she said: "ISI and Tirmizi had nothing to do with the nuclear program. The ISI was kept out of it both in the Bhutto and Zia governments."

She said she was not briefed by the ISI. "I called our scientists and asked for a briefing, and they briefed me. ISI-walay (the ISI men) were not the chief executive of Pakistan; I was. And Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the founder and father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb."

"I am silent because of national interests. Otherwise, I know a lot. Perhaps even today's rulers do not know as much about our nuclear program as I do."

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