ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 1 (UPI) -- Pakistan says there is no question of allowing U.S. troops on its territory to hunt for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said Monday his country will never trade its sovereignty, the BBC reported.
He was responding to a report in New Yorker magazine that spoke of a deal under which Pakistan would allow U.S. troops to hunt for bin Laden in return for U.S. support for Islamabad's pardon of its top atomic scientist A.Q. Khan.
Last month, Khan confessed on television to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Iran. But the Pakistani government wants to pardon him because of his cult-like popularity among the masses for his role in making Pakistan a nuclear power.
The New Yorker's claims were termed "absolutely absurd" and "untrue".
The magazine quoted an unnamed Pentagon official as saying U.S. Special Forces will be transferred from Iraq to Pakistan as part of the hunt for bin Laden.
