Hey AM this amounts to treason right and why is he still free???? This leads to the suspicion of involvment of pakistans institutional elements..!! Basically since the policies(forgien and domestic) are derived or influenced by a power centre here in this case military, the most influential person in that power centre can take decisions on their own.. and i believe this nuclear prolifieration was such teenager decision taken by a group of militiary top brass. You saw an immature decision in intruding in kargil, you saw an imature decision in supporting the afghan talibans during the soviet times.. and this could be one..!!!
And purely this is a logical conclusion i can derive out of all the news report that i have read..!!!
Because he still contributed a great deal to setting up Pakistan's nuclear program - we did not have to reinvent the wheel in a lot of areas because of his network - so he is still in a way a national hero, albeit a disgraced one, unless evidence indicating he did this under orders comes to light.
I doubt the military top brass would have taken the decision to proliferate, given that the military top brass would be the ones with the most intimate knowledge of Pakistan's strategic programs.
Why would order proliferation to NK for missile tech, when they knew that a more advanced solid fueled missile was being developed by NESCOM?
Why would they proliferate duds to Libya for no ostensible gain?
Why would they proliferate old Chinese designs to Iran for no ostensible gain, and incur the wrath of the Saudis, who are speculated to have bankrolled some strategic programs in return for a nuclear umbrella against Iran?
None of the above makes sense quite frankly, from the POV of the GoP or military top brass ordering the proliferation. I think the truth is more mundane, of a lack of proper controls and too much latitude allowed to AQ Khan by virtue of his personality, and of AQ Khan possibly having some high level facilitators in the GoP and/or military who were out to make money and/or proliferating to anti-US entities out of ideological reasons.
Think about this, if Western analysts are to be believed, Pakistan obtained a lot more technology from the West, by virtue of Western institutions and individuals proliferating, than it ever proliferated itself.
So why is the breakdown of controls in a less advanced and developed country so incredible, when Western nations committed even greater sins of proliferation? And why does no one suggest that all of their governments were secretly supporting proliferation to Pakistan?