Islamabad - The Pakistani Foreign Minister, Mr Gohar Ayub Khan, yesterday dismissed a newspaper report that five Pakistani nuclear scientists had "defected" to the West. Mr Khan told the BBC that he knew of no defections at all and described the report in the London Observer as "far-fetched".
The newspaper said a Pakistani nuclear scientist who recently fled to the West said he was asked by his country's authorities for information which would have enabled Islamabad to order a pre-emptive nuclear strike against India.
The Observer said that the scientist was one of five working on Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme who fled earlier this month and were now seeking political asylum.
