Pak sacked 'some people' to keep its nuclear programme safe

A Pakistani official has reportedly revealed that "some people" working on the country's nuclear programme were fired to keep it safe.

While speaking at a seminar on "Future Security Outlook of South Asia: Trends and Challenges," retired Brig Tahir Raza Naqvi, who works for Strategic Plans Division, the administering body for the nuclear programme, said that the sacked employees could not clear the Personnel Reliability Programme that was started in mid-2003-04 to screen employees working on the sensitive programme, reported the Dawn.

All employees of the nuclear programme are periodically checked for family background, education, political affiliation and religious inclinations.

Naqvi however, did not specify how many were sacked over the years or why they failed to clear the screening.

The seminar was organised by an Islamabad-based think tank, Centre for International Strategic Studies, and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany.