Pakistani Court Bars Khan From Media

A Pakistani court today upheld the four-year-old confinement of former top Pakistani nuclear scientist and proliferator Abdul Qadeer Khan, limiting his contacts to close friends and relatives and prohibiting him from discussing the government’s role in dispersing nuclear knowledge, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 16).

Sardar Mohammed Aslam, the presiding judge of the Islamabad High Court, ruled that Khan "will not convey, transmit, relay any comment or give interview to any channel, news reporter, print or electronic media, in any manner whatsoever in respect of issue of proliferation."

Khan was placed under house arrest in 2004, after he had confessed to spreading nuclear technology and expertise to Libya, Iran and North Korea.  The judge ruled that the all of Khan’s contacts must receive a security clearance and cannot discuss his role in the proliferation activities (Sadaqat Jan, Associated Press I/Google News, July 21).

However, the court permitted Khan to travel within the country to meet with relatives and to receive medical care from a physician that he chooses (Associated Press/Google News, July 21).

Lawyers for the government said the gag order is necessary to prevent the international community from imposing economic penalties on Pakistan.  It remained uncertain whether Khan would appeal the verdict (Jan, AP I).

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