Pakistani Court to Rule Monday on Khan’s Status

A Pakistani court announced today that it would rule Monday on the detention rules for admitted nuclear smuggler Abdul Qadeer Khan, once the nation’s leading nuclear architect, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 15).

The court held hearings this week to consider Khan’s request to ease the restrictions of the house arrest he has lived under since confessing in 2004 to leading a black market network that supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.  This year he has recanted that confession in repeated media interviews and has accused President Pervez Musharraf of being involved in nuclear transfers to North Korea.

Government lawyers have sought to keep Khan under detention and to restrict his access to telephones and the Internet.

Khan told the Islamabad High Court today that news outlets had wrongly reported his comments.

“I beg to submit that the media has misquoted me on several occasions and my rebuttals/disclaimers were published,” he said in a letter to the court’s chief justice, Sardar Muhammad Aslam.  “As I am confined to my house/subjail and have no direct interactional control or power to influence the media, the charade goes on.”

He said that “vested interests” have been “disseminating disinformation as well as malicious propaganda” insinuating that he has been disloyal to Pakistan.  “I cannot ever imagine making a statement detrimental to the interests of my beloved country for which I and my family made so much sacrifice” (Agence France-Presse/Google News, July 16).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.