Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Is A Free Man

 ’By the Grace of Allah, yes. Im a free Man’ 

A Pakistani court declared Khan a free man in February, five years after the man - reputed to be the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb - was effectively put under house arrest accused of operating a proliferation network. The 72-year-old Khan complained to a high court last week that his movements were still being restricted. The court ordered the government to respond to Khan’s claim on September 4.

The United States in February had expressed concern that Khan’s release could lead to renewed nuclear proliferation. To allay fears, Pakistan said he had no access to atomic facilities. Khan’s lawyer Syed Ali Zafar said that if he continued to be free of restrictions by Friday’s court hearing then he would not proceed with his legal action.

Access to Khan’s sprawling residence in one of the most upmarket areas of Islamabad was unhindered on Tuesday. ‘We are not stopping anyone from meeting Mr A.Q. Khan,’ a plain-clothed security official at the main gate told AFP.

Latest Update : Abdul Qadeer Khan Put Under Curbs Again

History Of Arrest & Confession:

Five and a half years since his sensational confession on national television, Mr Khan is almost sure to use the days ahead to portray himself as a victim of Gen Musharraf’s (retd) rule and to try to salvage his reputation with the help of sympathetic elements in the media. But perhaps just as Mr Khan was wronged in 2004 for being singled out, he is wrong for blaming Mr Musharraf alone. The fact is, A.Q. Khan is regarded by the country’s nuclear establishment as a disgraced scientist and it was this collective, we stress collective, judgment that resulted in his downfall. Few here fault Mr Khan for engaging a shadowy network of nuclear proliferators to help build a nuclear programme when not one of the nuclear haves in the world was willing to sanction such technology for Pakistan. But the difficulty arises once it becomes clear that Mr Khan was not just taking from that network, but supplying it with centrifuges and blueprints for various parts of a nuclear programme for sale onwards to other countries. It is certainly doubtful that Mr Khan acted entirely on his own, but there is no question that he was part of a network that nearly rendered Pakistan a nuclear rogue state in the eyes of the world - a near-disastrous outcome that is worsened by the fact that a motive as base as material greed was involved.

Be that as it may, what will worry the nuclear establishment is that Mr Khan will go beyond his bitterness towards a former dictator and perhaps start to talk about the many, many secrets he undoubtedly keeps regarding the country’s nuclear programme. And they will certainly worry that a free A.Q. Khan is a vulnerable A.Q Khan - vulnerable to foreign agencies that would love nothing better than to get their hands on the man. We hope, therefore, that Mr Khan will be cautious in his words and movements, and that those who interpret what he says and does keep in mind that he has an axe to grind.

Report by Dawn.com

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