Pakistan Finance Minister Shoukat Aziz's visit to secret nuclear weapons sites has come under attack from opposition parties, who allege that the visit was aimed at 'capping' the country's nuclear programme ahead of President Pervez Musharraf's visit to the United States.
Raising the issue in the senate on Thursday, senior Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Ishaq Dar said, "Though Pakistan's nuclear programme has reportedly been frozen long ago, this fresh visit by a federal minister to sensitive areas where even a civilian president could not go is a cause of an alarm for the entire nation."
Linking Aziz's trip to the nuclear site to his forthcoming visit to the US, Dar, a former finance minister, said he too came under pressure from the Americans in the past on the nuclear issue, local daily The News reported.
"Every time a Pakistani finance minister visits the US for discussion financial matters, the Americans love to hear about details of the country's nuclear programme," he said.
Stating that the issue came up when he met the then US deputy treasury secretary in Bill Clinton's administration, Dar said the US officials wanted to know details of Pakistani nuclear programme but he 'snubbed' them saying 'this was none of their business'.
Dar said he has also visited some nuclear sites in his capacity as finance minister, but was not allowed to go beyond a point.
Aziz, on his part, criticised the opposition for raising the issue of his visit to the weapons sites, saying they have done a 'disservice' to the country by raising it at a public forum.
He said the country's nuclear programme was in safe hands and 'everybody must know that no compromise would be made with any one on the nuclear programme'.