Father of the Pakistan’s nuclear programme Free to Enjoy Life

The Lahore High Court on Friday removed all restrictions on the movement of the father of the country’s nuclear programme Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and allowed him to go anywhere he wants.

The LHC issued orders a day after Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan moved a petition challenging his official protocol, terming it a hindrance.

In February this year the Islamabad High Court had declared Dr. Khan as a free citizen of Pakistan and said that he is free to go anywhere in Pakistan.

But defence lawyer SM Zafar told the court the government’s official protocol restricted Khan’s freedom of movement and he felt like a prisoner.

The lawyer had requested the court to direct the government to withdraw Dr Khan’s protocol.

The LHC lifted the ‘official protocol’ and also issued contempt notice to the government as to why restrictions had been slapped on Dr Khan despite previous decision by the Islamabad High Court.

“It is a good decision,” Dr Khan told reporters at his heavily-guarded house in Islamabad.

Dr Khan, hero in Pakistan, was put under house arrest in 2004, after he was forced to appear in state television to confess tat he had been involved in a clandestine international network of nuclear weapons technology proliferation from Pakistan.

Khan says that former President Pervez Musharraf forced him to make statement and that he has never involved in illegal transfer of nuclear technology.

“I do not need their official protocol. I want to go freely,” Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan said. He aid he wants to go to Karachi to enquire about the health of his sick brother.

He said that restrictions on movement have badly affected his social life. “I was living as prisoner under the official protocol,” the nuclear scientist said.