Last Friday, a federal grand jury in Washington charged 47-year-old Pakistani businessman Humayun A. Khan with attempting to illegally export oscilloscopes and high-speed switches, equipment that have both medical and military use.

The most significant point in this indictment is the allegation that Khan contacted Israeli businessman Asher Karni in August 2002, and the two continued to try to bring the devices to Pakistan till Jan. 1, 2004.

The allegation implies that even after joining the U.S. cam p after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pakistan tried to violate U.S. laws to enhance its nuclear program.

If proved, this allegation can have a major negative impact on Washington's relations with Islamabad that began to thaw in late 2001 after a decade of tensions and strains. And if the relations deteriorate again, it will not be the first time that Pakistan's nuclear program adversely affects its ties to the United States.

Pakistan was a key U.S. ally during the Afghan war, too, when from 1979 to 1989, it allowed U.S.-backed Afghan guerrillas to use its territory for attacking Soviet occupation forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

It was also during this period that Pakistan sheltered more than 3 million Afghan refugees, many of whom are still living there, and allowed the CIA and other Western military and intelligence agencies to use its territory as a conduit for supplying weapons to the guerrillas.

Although the war brought lucrative U.S. financial assistance to Pakistan, the influx of such a large number of refugees was a constant strain on an already impoverished economy.

The war also brought guns to Pakistani guerrilla groups who first used them against the Russians, then against the Indians in the disputed Kashmir region and are now using it against the Pakistani establishment.

The war also brought the drug culture to a region where heroin was not available before, and it affected Pakistan's already small middle class, which was the backbone of the Pakistani economy.

The United States apparently realized the sacrifices that Pakistan had made during the Afghan war and was willing to help it as well, but during this period Pakistan also was engaged in an activity that the Americans did not like.

Realizing that the Americans could not have defeated the Russians in Afghanistan without their support, the Pakistanis secretly expedited their efforts to make a nuclear bomb.

Pakistan first decided to make an atomic bomb in 1974, years before the Russians entered Afghanistan. As in all bad and good things Pakistan does, the motivation came from its arch rival India, which conducted a nuclear test in 1974.

Soon after the Indian test, the then-Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto vowed to acquire a nuclear bomb even if the Pakistanis "have to eat grass" to do so.

Pakistanis, who blame India for separating the former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1971, have never believed the Indian assurance that its nuclear program is not aimed at Pakistan.

For them to have a nuclear weapon was "a question of life and death" as a former Pakistani President Ghulam Ishaq Khan often used to say, arguing that if Pakistan does not have a weapon to match, India would not hesitate to use its nuclear bomb against Islamabad.

This Pakistani thinking forced Islamabad to devote whatever resources it had on its nuclear program, and by 1989, when the Soviets left Afghanistan, Pakistan was only "the turn of a screw away" from making a nuclear bomb, as the father of the Pakistani bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, used to say.

The U.S. administration always knew what the Pakistanis were up to and increased its efforts to dissuade Pakistan from going nuclear when the Russians left Afghanistan in 1989.

The Pakistanis ignored the U.S. advice, and in October 1990, the first Bush administration slapped sweeping sanctions on Pakistan on the grounds that Islamabad was secretly making a nuclear bomb.

The sanctions crippled the Pakistani economy, grounded the Pakistani air force, which almost entirely depended on U.S. weapon supplies, and also adversely affected the Pakistani army and the navy.

But instead of giving up their nuclear program, the Pakistanis decided to overcome their weakness in conventional weapon s by making a nuclear bomb.

Thus, when India tested its nuclear devices in May 1998, the Pakistanis were able to test their own devices exactly 17 days later.

And it was no coincidence that Pakistan used the Afghan war to focus on its nuclear program or hid behind Indian nuclear tests to blunt international criticism of its own tests. Pakistanis have always believed that they were too weak a nation to pursue a nuclear policy on their own, and that's why they hid behind others to achieve their goals.

But things have changed after Sept. 11, 2001. After those terrorist attacks, the United States is no longer willing to allow any group of individuals to indulge in any illegal activity in the United States that can threaten American lives and interests, particularly if it involves weapons of mass destruction.

The indictment unsealed before a federal jury in Washington Friday makes it clear that the United States sees the activities of the Pakistani businessman not only as violating U.S. laws but also as a security threat and an act of terror.

If proven, the charges could not only send the businessman to jail for a long time but could also jeopardize Islamabad's relations with the United States.

The case could also prove a media disaster for Pakistan. Already several major U.S. newspapers are linking this to the network run by the disgraced Pakistani scientist, Khan, who confessed in February 2004 to selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Some media reports are also claiming that this network is as large and as dangerous as the one unearthed last year and might have already supplied nuclear-capable equipment to several countries.

Karni, the Israeli businessman, reportedly told his interrogators that he had also supplied similar equipment to Indian government agencies dealing with nuclear and missile programs. He also confessed to supplying this equipment to other countries that were not identified in the indictment.

Aware of the negative repercussions of these reports, Pakistani officials have strongly rejected any link to the businessman and his activities.

A spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Washington said reports that Pakistan had tried to illegally buy nuclear devices from U.S. companies were "malicious and unfounded."

The government of Pakistan was not involved at any stage, in any capacity and in any way, directly or indirectly," said Pakistan's deputy chief of mission, Mohammed Sadiq. "Humayun Khan was not involved in procuring triggers or other equipment for Pakistan's nuclear program."

Sadiq said that while in Pakistan's case Karni only spoke of buying devices for a private businessman, in India he confessed to dealing with government agencies.

"And yet no Indian individual or agency has been indicted or identified so far," said the Pakistani diplomat. "Other countries that Karni acknowledges dealing with are not even identified."

"If you look at the indictment, you will see that it's U.S. companies that are selling certain devices to an Israeli citizen. Pakistan is not involved either in buying or selling of this equipment," he said.

Such a strong reaction reflects Pakistan's fears of possible repercussions. For Pakistan, the indictment could not have come at a worse time.

Pakistan is about to buy the much-needed F-16 fighter jets from the United States, which could once again revive its almost crippled air force. Pakistanis also remember that it was the nuclear dispute that led to the cancellation of a similar deal with the United States in 1990.

Pakistan had even paid for the 32 F-16s it was then buying. But the first Bush administration not only canceled the deal but also stopped supplying spare parts for the F-16s Pakistan already had. The Clinton administration continued the sanctions.

Another scandal at this stage can once again lead to similar consequences.

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