Musharraf squirms under the pressure: Musharraf Vows No More Leaks of Nuclear Secrets.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, pledged that Pakistan had put a stop to the covert export of nuclear weapons know-how.

“Please let it not be thought that the same proliferation activity will start again,” Musharraf told the NBC network in an interview in Islamabad. “Never. That will never happen.”

He was responding to questions about his handling of the confession last week by Abdul Qadeer Khan, revered as the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, that he had leaked secrets to Libya, North Korea and Iran as head of Pakistan’s nuclear program from the 1970s.

Musharraf quickly pardoned Khan and rejected calls for an independent inquiry into the military’s role in the nuclear leaks.

Asked by NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw about charges that this amounted to a whitewash, Musharraf said:

“I disagree with it absolutely. The dilemma is: he’s a great man, he’s a hero, and he’s a hero of every individual in the street. Yet he has done something which could bring harm to the nation. Now how do I deal with it?” Musharraf said.