Pakistan has not permitted US personnel to guard its nuclear installations, but was ready for any cooperation in this regard which was consistent with its sovereignty, a senior official said Monday.
The reports in a section of media that Pakistan has permitted US personnel to guard its nuclear facilities "are absolutely baseless," Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told state-run PTV.
She added that Pakistan was ready to cooperate in this regard, provided terms of such a cooperation were consistent with the sovereignty of the country.
Earlier at a press briefing, Aslam said as members of International Atomic Energy Agency, "We participate in multilateral programmes aimed at nuclear security worldwide. We said we can undertake any bilateral effort in that direction."
"Our cooperation with US is in the context of wide ranging regional security dialogue that we have had with the US. As a part of it, we shared ideas and concepts on best practices regarding the protection of sensitive nuclear materials. There are no American guards at any Pakistani facilities," she said.
She also denied reports that Pakistan had agreed to a US request to question its disgraced top scientist A Q Khan.
"Our positions on giving access to question A Q Khan is very clear and categorical," she said adding, "We have fully cooperated with IAEA and shared information with other countries as well. We said if new information comes to light we will be ready to continue our cooperation."
