South Asia News
Pakistani court frees disgraced nuclear scientist from house arrest
Feb 6, 2009, 8:18 GMT
Islamabad - A Pakistani court on Friday declared disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan a free man, his lawyer said.
'He is a free man now. The Islamabad High Court has ended his house arrest and lifted travel restrictions he was subjected to for the last five years,' Khan's attorney Iqbal Jaffry said.
Khan, who is regarded as a national hero for spearheading Pakistan's nuclear programme, was placed under house arrest in 2004 after he made a televised confession for leaking nuclear secrets to foreign countries like Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Talking to media directly first time in five years at his bungalow in an upmarket neighbourhood of Islamabad, Khan said he would travel to other cities to see his relatives and friends.
Previously he had contact with the media one via telephone, letters and e-mail. For the last couple of months he has been writing regular columns in an Urdu-language daily newspaper.
Khan said he would not engage himself in nuclear activities and instead set up some educational institution to promote engineering and industrial education.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who wanted to interview Khan on his nuclear black market network have been denied access to Khan by the Pakistani government in the past.
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