By IANS
Islamabad : Restrictions on Pakistan’s detained nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, who has smuggled nuclear technology to Iran and Libya, have been partially lifted and he can now meet some of his close friends, the media here reported Tuesday.
Khan’s former lawyer, S.M. Zafar, took up this issue with President Pervez Musharraf who subsequently issued directives in this regard, according to The News.
Zafar, also a Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) senator, said the requests of intending visitors are routed through the Strategic Planning Division, which decides who should be granted permission.
Zafar made the disclosure a day after PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain said that the next government would set Khan free.
Long celebrated as the “Father of the Pakistani Bomb”, Khan provided the country with the means for producing nuclear weapons. In March 2001 he was promoted to the inner circle of the country’s military leadership as special science and technology adviser to President Musharraf.
However, he was sacked from the position unceremoniously in January 2004 after he was found to have passed on nuclear secrets to other countries. Khan has been under detention for the last 1,443 days.
A relative of Khan however said he had not been granted permission to see the scientist. There is a list of people who can meet Khan and the list keeps changing, the newspaper said.
Khan’s daughters, sister (Razia) and brother, Abdul Qayyum, are allowed to meet him. Other people who may see Khan are his physician Lt. Gen. (retd) Riaz Chohan and two former ambassadors – Amir Usman and Anwar Kamal.
According to family sources, non-family visitors, even those whose names are included in the list, have to make a request at least two days before the meeting takes place.
These visitors are normally allowed in the evenings, usually at dinner and are allowed to stay with Khan for less than three hours. “The length of their meetings normally depends on the ‘courses’ of the dinner,” the family source said.
One of Khan’s scientist colleagues also denied the impression that he was allowed to meet Khan. He said a majority of his scientist colleagues are virtually under house arrest and are not allowed to leave their homes.