Architect of Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Programme Tells Court He is ‘Kept Prisoner’
Abdul Qadeer Khan, who made international headlines in 2004 after publicly confessing his role in global nuclear proliferation, has petitioned Pakistan’s top court to say he is being “kept prisoner” by government agencies and not allowed to plead his case for freedom of movement.
Khan, widely described as the architect of the nuclear weapons programme in Pakistan, which tested its first atomic bomb in 1998 to rival that of neighbouring India, was sacked from his official position after his confession, but granted clemency by then President Pervez Musharraf.
He has since lived a heavily guarded and mostly secluded life in an upscale Islamabad neighbourhood. Authorities say he is under guard for security reasons.
“I had been kept as a prisoner having no free movement or meeting with anybody,” Khan said in a handwritten note submitted to the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Source: News18
