Dr AQ Khan demands action against ‘perjuring officials’
Says security risk exaggerated to restrict movement
Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, reputed to be the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, has requested the chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) to take strict action against officials allegedly “involved in betraying the court by giving false statements in his case”.
The scientist, whose movement is monitored due to security concerns, has accused officials of exaggerating the threats to his life in order to restrict his movement. He said he wants to live like a common man in an atmosphere where he could talk and move freely rather than being confined to a house.
He urged the LHC chief justice to take to task the security detail provided to him as well as those officials who, he said, had perjured themselves in order to keep him confined.
He quoted his petition that he had filed in the LHC through advocates Mudasar Chaudhary and Ghulam Mujtaba Chaudhary against the restrictions imposed by the government over his moment in the name of security threats to him.
“What sort of security threat could be at universities, colleges and other respective institutions?” he inquired. He added that he had no plans to go abroad or divulge any details of the country’s nuclear programme and that is why he should be granted freedom of movement.
Dr Khan was released in 2009, five years after he was arrested under the Security Act for allegedly transferring nuclear technology and centrifuges to other countries. In 2004, Khan had confessed to sending nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, although he later retracted his remarks.
Dr AQ Khan had also sent a letter to the LHC Chief Justice Sardar Shamim Ahmed Khan a few weeks ago.
In it, he contended that that former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf had put pressure on him on America’s behest to read the confessional statement regarding selling nuclear secrets. He later claimed that the letter was also authored by Musharraf.
Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, reputed to be the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, has requested the chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) to take strict action against officials allegedly “involved in betraying the court by giving false statements in his case”.
The scientist, whose movement is monitored due to security concerns, has accused officials of exaggerating the threats to his life in order to restrict his movement. He said he wants to live like a common man in an atmosphere where he could talk and move freely rather than being confined to a house.
He urged the LHC chief justice to take to task the security detail provided to him as well as those officials who, he said, had perjured themselves in order to keep him confined.
He quoted his petition that he had filed in the LHC through advocates Mudasar Chaudhary and Ghulam Mujtaba Chaudhary against the restrictions imposed by the government over his moment in the name of security threats to him.
“What sort of security threat could be at universities, colleges and other respective institutions?” he inquired. He added that he had no plans to go abroad or divulge any details of the country’s nuclear programme and that is why he should be granted freedom of movement.
Dr Khan was released in 2009, five years after he was arrested under the Security Act for allegedly transferring nuclear technology and centrifuges to other countries. In 2004, Khan had confessed to sending nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, although he later retracted his remarks.
Dr AQ Khan had also sent a letter to the LHC Chief Justice Sardar Shamim Ahmed Khan a few weeks ago.
In it, he contended that that former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf had put pressure on him on America’s behest to read the confessional statement regarding selling nuclear secrets. He later claimed that the letter was also authored by Musharraf.