Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the LHC also directed the government to file a reply to Dr Khan’s letter to the court in which he has sought permission to appear on the media and appeal to people to donate funds for the flood affected.
Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, on behalf of Dr Khan, argued that in spite of the court having repeatedly declared Dr Khan a free man, the government was restricting his movement.
Barrister Zafar said the LHC on May 28, 2010, had declared that Dr Khan was a free man and that no restrictions under the garb of security can be put on him. He said that every citizen of Pakistan was entitled to the freedom of speech, expression and movement.
Dr Khan had written to the judge (Justice Ijaz) to bring to his notice what he described as various violations of the court’s judgment.
Dr AQ Khan had requested the court to issue fresh instructions to the government to stop the “mischief”.
Talking to the media, the counsel said that Dr Khan had written to the judge “Sir, I thought you had explicitly declared me a free citizen, free to move around (with intimation to the security) and to see anybody I wished to see… but it dawned on me on many occasions that the establishment and the intelligence agencies in Pakistan consider the judgments/orders of the courts no better than the dust of their shoes… I wanted to use this opportunity to appeal to the Pakistanis, both in Pakistan and abroad, to donate generously to the funds for the flood-affected people. I was not going to discuss any nuclear proliferation matter as per your orders.”
The case was adjourned until October 8.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2010.
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