Firm Casts Doubt on Man’s Nuclear Claim

A director of Karachi-based Forte Trading Co. Ltd. says a Pakistani man claiming to be a nuclear scientist with confidential information about his country’s weapons program is actually a former low-level accountant at his company, which makes ceramic tiles and bathroom fixtures. Iftikhar Chaudhry Khan, 29, is seeking asylum in New York, saying he fled Pakistan after learning of plans to use nuclear weapons against India. Khan says he was a scientist with the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. But company director Azad Gulzar Sheikh was quoted by Pakistani news media as saying that, until recently, Khan worked for him. ‘