WASHINGTON, March 6: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has suggested that the government should order an independent inquiry into allegations against Dr A.Q. Khan because many in Pakistan still believe that he is a national hero who has been unfairly treated.

Ms Bhutto told a news conference in Washington on Saturday that it was her father who had brought Dr Khan to Pakistan and he played a key role in the country's nuclear programme for which the entire nation respected him. "But it is a matter of great shame and disappointment that he appeared on the national television and confessed to selling Pakistan's nuclear secrets in the black market."

She said there were people in Pakistan who believed that Dr Khan had been made a scapegoat and that it's "possible that he was ordered to do whatever he did". "If this is true, then the people should know about it. This ambiguity can be cleared by holding an independent inquiry," said Ms Bhutto, hoping that the government would hold such an inquiry.

"If some people believe a national hero has been wrongly accused of what he has not done, they have a right to know the truth. If he has done what he is accused of doing, then he is wrong."

Although in the past Ms Bhutto had said she was kept in the dark on Pakistan's nuclear programme, she changed her stance at the press conference. Referring to a book written by a former ISI official, Brig Tirmizi, who claimed that the former prime minister was never briefed on the nuclear programme, she said: "ISI and Tirmizi had nothing to do with the nuclear programme. The ISI was kept out of it both in the Bhutto and Zia governments."

She said she was not briefed by the ISI. "I called our scientists and asked for a briefing and they briefed me. ISI-walay were not the chief executive of Pakistan, I was. And Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the founder and father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb."

"I am silent because of national interests, otherwise I know a lot. Perhaps even today's rulers do not know as much about our nuclear programme as I do."

She said that in 1989, the PPP government had formed a missile technology board, which produced short-range missiles that did not violate international restrictions on this technology.

"In 1993, when I was going to North Korea, our scientists said: 'Please bring these blueprints for us. These were blueprints for short- and medium-range missiles. "I told them, our policy is to have parity with India, unless India tests those missiles, we should not. I was told that we will not make these missiles. We will only make preparations.

"I was told, 'only you can bring these blueprints, only you can bring F-16s from America, only you can bring Mirage aircraft from France'. Look, what they have done to me now.

"I told the North Koreans, give us missile technology. We should be prepared for (any threat). It was a cash transaction, no exchange of nuclear technology. It was never even discussed.