HYDERABAD, Sept 28: The Sindh Democratic Forum (SDF) on Friday threw its support behind Benazir Bhutto stressing that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should be allowed access to Dr Qadir Khan.

In a statement issued to the press, the forum’s convenor Abrar Kazi and secretary Zulfiqar Halepoto said that it was high time the control of Pakistan’s nuclear assets was transferred to a representative and democratic regime that was answerable to people rather than a few individuals answerable to none.

As a responsible nuclear power Pakistan must abide by all the international commitments and safeguards necessary for convincing international community that the country’s atomic energy programme was meant for peaceful purposes, the SDF said.

Pakistanis were a responsible people who had seen their country being turned into a national security state by generals, who had, for a very long time been milking the country and pursuing policies that led the country from one catastrophe to the other.

The dark and depraved rule of the coterie of generals led by Yahya Khan led to Pakistan breaking into two. “Another coterie of generals led by Ziaul Haq foolishly pursued “Strategic Depth” and in return brought Kalashnikovs and heroin into our homes and pushed Afghanistan into a bloody civil war from which the unfortunate country has yet to recover”.

They said that Gen Zia used religion for his own personal service so that the fair name of Islam became synonymous with hypocrisy. The third generation of generals led by Musharraf had brought infamy of Kargil as a gift to the nation.

“The Kargil episode forces Pakistan to admit to the world community that it had in fact been committing cross-border terrorism as India had always blamed,” they remarked.

They said that Pakistan had been forced under American pressure to abandon its 55 years policy of self-determination for Kashmiris through plebiscite and added that a third option was being considered now.

They said that today they were faced with a multitude of problems like unsettled political question, a sham democracy, war against Pakistani nationals in Balochistan, Wana and Waziristan, rising poverty, religious extremism, ethnic terrorism as witnessed on May 12 in Karachi, total breakdown of governance and a nuclear proliferating rouge state.

They said that it was the height of Pakistan’s vulnerability in nuclear matters that not only the top nuclear scientists and generals had earned international disrepute.

They said that 160 million Pakistanis deserved a better fate than what they had been dished out so far.

The poor country needed nuclear energy for sustainable development and it was imperative that all international safeguards relating to nuclear technology and proliferation must be strictly followed and all the international commitments and standards must be exercised. He said that the international suspicions about Pakistan being a nuclear proliferating state should be firmly done away with.