Thaindian News

By Awais Saleem
Islamabad, Nov 29 (IANS) Pakistan Monday condemned the expose by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks and said it was still analysing the information contained in the sensitive US diplomatic cables.

“The US administration had already informed Islamabad about these documents and their contents. However, we are still looking at the information given in these documents,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told Dunya TV.

Basit condemned the expose and said: “Such sensitive documents should not have been disclosed in this way.”

WikiLeaks made public classified documents of the US State Department, in which Saudi king Abdullah termed Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari as the “biggest obstacle in the country’s progress”.

The papers also carried “reservations of the US about Pakistan’s nuclear programme and the war on terror in Afghanistan”.

DPA adds:

According to the documents, since 2007 the US has been engaged in secret efforts to remove highly enriched uranium from a Pakistani nuclear reactor over the fears that the material could be used in an illicit nuclear device.

Basit said Pakistan could never allow any foreign country to intervene in its nuclear programme.

“The context of these documents show very clearly that Pakistani leadership knows very well how to defend its nuclear program. We have very well guarded our national interests and will keep on doing so in the coming years,” said Basit.

In a separate cable leaked by WikiLeaks, quoted Saudi King Shah Abdullah saying that Zardari was a major obstacle to Pakistan’s progress.

“When the head is rotten, it effects the whole body,” Abdullah was cited as saying.

The spokesman refused to comment on Abdullah’s alleged remarks, adding that “it was the job of Saudi government” to respond to it.