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Islamabad: The government on Tuesday asked a court not to withdraw curbs on nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan because the move risked implicating the state in nuclear proliferation, a government lawyer said.
Khan, popularly regarded as the father of the country's atomic bomb, was pardoned but placed under house arrest by President Pervez Musharraf in 2004 soon after he made a televised confession about passing on nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
The scientist now says he was persuaded to take the blame in the bigger interests of the nation but the government broke its promise to rehabilitate him and allow him to move freely inside the country.
Wife petitions high court
Khan's wife has filed a case in an Islamabad high court seeking his freedom, but the government yesterday called for tightening curbs on the scientist, saying recent statements he had given to media were damaging to the state.
"He should not meet people freely and only meet relatives, because statements (that) have been issued (during) these interactions have been legally damaging for Pakistan," said government lawyer Ahmad Bilal Sufi.
Sufi hinted lawyers from both sides would brief the chief justice during in-camera proceedings today.
In a report earlier this month, Khan was quoted as saying that the army, Musharraf and the spy agency had "complete knowledge" of the sale of centrifuges to North Korea eight years ago.
The military said Khan was seeking to falsely implicate Musharraf, the Inter-Services Intelligence, the army and the Strategic Planning Division that oversees the development of nuclear weapons.
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