The Pakistani government has filed a petition in the High Court seeking to investigate Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who has confessed to running the world’s largest nuclear proliferation network, over recent reports about his ties to Iran’s nuclear program, a government lawyer said on Monday.
The petition was filed on Monday, hours before a court in Lahore was to announce a verdict on Khan’s petition to have his travel restrictions relaxed.
The court is expected to issue its ruling today on both petitions, lawyers for both the government and Khan said.
The government filed its request in an effort to investigate Khan regarding recent news reports in which he was said to have confessed to supplying Iran with information related to the nuclear program.
A copy of the government petition obtained by reporters cited two articles published on March 10 and March 14 by the Washington Post that “have national security implications for Pakistan as they contain allegations related to the nuclear program and nuclear cooperation. Further, they have likelihood of adversely affecting friendly ties with the government of Iran and Iraq.”
The petition requested the court to direct Khan to “refrain from interacting with foreign media.”
The article published on March 14 reported that Khan had disclosed in a written document that Pakistan gave Iran drawings related to a nuclear bomb, parts of centrifuges to purify uranium and a secret worldwide list of suppliers. The article published on March 10 cited a nuclear weapons expert who said members of Khan’s network had reached out to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s government in 1990.
Both Khan and the Pakistani government have denied these claims.
The government appeared to have filed its request partly to stall the court ruling on Khan’s petition, and it came as Pakistan’s powerful army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, was in the US for high-level security talks.
Khan’s lawyer Syed Ali Zafar called the government’s petition “irrelevant.”
“Today’s government application is mischief by the government, as it wants to defer the case,” Zafar said.
He added that Khan had been given a public affidavit saying that his hands are clean.
The government lawyer, Naveed Inayat Malik, declined in a telephone interview to offer further information on how the court had handled the government’s request.
“The court proceedings were held in-camera,” he said, referring to a term used here to describe classified proceedings. “It is, therefore, not possible for me to talk about the proceedings.”
A government spokesman told local news outlets last week that the Khan network was a “closed chapter.”
Pakistani authorities have continuously rebuffed international nuclear investigators who want to interview Khan about his proliferation activities.
Khan was placed under house arrest in 2004 by then-president Pervez Musharraf, after confessing to selling nuclear technology to various countries. US officials say they believe that among them were Iran, Libya and North Korea.
But Khan’s role in developing Pakistan’s nuclear program also gave him the status of a national hero within the country. Right-wing and Islamist political parties continue to praise him as the “father of the bomb.”
Last month, a court in the capital, Islamabad, declared Khan a free man, but the government assured the US that it would continue to monitor him, and he was allowed to meet with friends and family only after getting approval from the security agencies.
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