By IRNA
Islamabad : Pakistan’s Foreign Minister hinted on Monday to lift restrictions on the country’s nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has been under detention since January 2004.
Khan was put under house arrest after he was produced on the state-run television to say that he exported nuclear technology outside Pakistan.
But Khan said in recent interviews that he had taken responsibility of nuclear transfer only to save the country.
Khan told Pakistan’s Urdu newspaper ‘Nawa-i-Waqt’ that he is under “illegal detention” and hoped that the country’s new government will soon lift restrictions on his movement.
Pakistan’s new Foreign Minister ShahMehmood Qureshi said that he wants restrictions on Dr Khan are lifted.
“I do not want to see his (Qadeer Khan) movements restricted.
He is a Pakistani and a respected Pakistani, ” Qureshi told Dawn TV channel.
Qureshi also said he should be free to meet friends or go for a drive.
“He is a national hero and will not be handed over to IAEA in any situation,” the Foreign Minister said.
On February 5, 2004, the President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, announced that he had pardoned Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Opposition Islamic groups say that Qadeer Khan was forced to make confessional statement on the state-run television to appease the United States and the West.
“My health is deteriorating and the claims of the government about my physical well-being do not carry weight,” the 72-year-old Khan said.
The main cause for his poor health is his “solitary confinement”, claimed Khan, who was hospitalised briefly last month and has undergone several medical check-ups in the past few weeks.
Refuting the impression that he had been detained due to security concerns, he said: “It is nothing but only a lame excuse by the government.”
Despite his public admission on state-run television of running a nuclear proliferation ring, Khan is regarded as a national hero in Pakistan and several political parties, including the PML-N that is part of the new ruling coalition, have said he should be freed from house arrest.