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Authorities relax restrictions on Pakistan nuclear scientist

Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's most revered nuclear scientist who fell from grace for allegedly selling nuclear know-how and technology, said he is stable after treatment for prostate cancer.

  • Financial Times
  • Published: 00:11 May 25, 2008
  • Gulf News

Islamabad: Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's most revered nuclear scientist who fell from grace for allegedly selling nuclear know-how and technology, said he is stable after treatment for prostate cancer.

Khan has been under house arrest for four years and President Pervez Musharraf has been repeatedly petitioned to release him on compassionate grounds. Khan's cancer had been believed to be life-threatening.

However, in a rare telephone interview, Khan, 70, said: "My health is stable.I was lucky that there was no secondary infection."

His comments came amid growing speculation that the restrictions surrounding his confinement had been relaxed. On Wednesday he was allowed to visit his friends at the government-run Pakistan Academy of Sciences.

In a further sign of that relaxation, a senior Pakistani government official said yesterday that Khan might be allowed to visit his ailing brother in Karachi.

Khan is revered as the father of the country's atomic bomb.

However, during the interview, Khan appeared to have little interest in celebrating the tenth anniversary of the country's maiden tests this week. He refused to comment on the state or outlook of Pakistan's nuclear programme.

Out of touch

"I have nothing to say about the nuclear programme. I have been out of touch for years," he said.

Khan rose to prominence in the late 1970s when western intelligence reports confirmed that Pakistan was actively pursuing plans to build what was dubbed as the world's first "Islamic nuclear bomb".

Khan was charged in 2003 with overseeing the sale of nuclear technology and knowhow to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

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