Hey there guys,
Just some breaking news coming in, so I thought I should post it here and get your views...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2ba1c314-f...0779fd2ac.html
Seemingly the chap has been released by the Islamabad Court and allowed to move freely across Pakistan.
So, tell me guys... what do you think are the implications of this release ???
Does this mean that the US is slowly beginning to lose its control over what Pakistan does ??? And, what are the possible implications on the war on terror ???
Just some breaking news coming in, so I thought I should post it here and get your views...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2ba1c314-f...0779fd2ac.html
Seemingly the chap has been released by the Islamabad Court and allowed to move freely across Pakistan.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan’s best known nuclear scientist, was released from effective house arrest on Friday, five years after being placed in detention for his alleged role in sharing nuclear know-how and technology with Iran, Libya and North Korea.
In a brief order passed by Sardar Muhammad Aslam, chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, Mr Khan, a metallurgical engineer and the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, was declared to be a free citizen, allowed to move across the country.
Government officials said the court had urged him to inform the government in advance of any domestic travel, given the sensitivity surrounding his activities. It was not immediately clear if Mr Khan would be allowed to travel freely outside the country.
In his first comments to journalists waiting outside his house in the upper class E-7 district of Islamabad, Mr Khan said he was looking forward to devoting his time to philanthropic work in education.
He refused to respond to questions about the allegations of proliferating nuclear equipment and know-how that have been made against him, or the circumstances in which he made what appeared to be a humiliating apology on national TV in 2004.
“What is done is done. There is no use complaining about the past,” he said. “Even president Asif Zardari (Pakistan’s head of state) was detained for eight years. Has he made an issue out of it? I want to move on”.
Mr Khan joined the Pakistan nuclear programme from the Netherlands, where he was working as a metallurgist, when it was set up in response to a nuclear test by India in 1974.
His pioneering work eventually enabled the country to conduct its maiden nuclear tests in 1998, just three weeks after India carried out a second series of nuclear tests.
Shahidur Rehman, the author of an authoritative book on Pakistan’s nuclear program me said the legal basis of the charges against Mr Khan was always very weak.
“How do you punish a man based on what seemed like hearsay,” he said. Pakistani government officials have said in the past they had gathered detailed evidence of Mr Khan’s activities, including evidence that was too sensitive to be presented in a courtroom.
However, Mr Khan’s public position strengthened in the wake of his house arrest, with many Pakistanis believing that he had been was framed.
“The Americans, Israel and India all opposed Abdul Qadeer Khan because he gave us our first Islamic nuclear bomb” said Javed Nazir, an Islamabad taxi driver. In parts of Islamabad, Mr Khan’s supporters distributed traditional south Asian dessert known as ‘mithai’ to celebrate his legal victory.
In a brief order passed by Sardar Muhammad Aslam, chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, Mr Khan, a metallurgical engineer and the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, was declared to be a free citizen, allowed to move across the country.
Government officials said the court had urged him to inform the government in advance of any domestic travel, given the sensitivity surrounding his activities. It was not immediately clear if Mr Khan would be allowed to travel freely outside the country.
In his first comments to journalists waiting outside his house in the upper class E-7 district of Islamabad, Mr Khan said he was looking forward to devoting his time to philanthropic work in education.
He refused to respond to questions about the allegations of proliferating nuclear equipment and know-how that have been made against him, or the circumstances in which he made what appeared to be a humiliating apology on national TV in 2004.
“What is done is done. There is no use complaining about the past,” he said. “Even president Asif Zardari (Pakistan’s head of state) was detained for eight years. Has he made an issue out of it? I want to move on”.
Mr Khan joined the Pakistan nuclear programme from the Netherlands, where he was working as a metallurgist, when it was set up in response to a nuclear test by India in 1974.
His pioneering work eventually enabled the country to conduct its maiden nuclear tests in 1998, just three weeks after India carried out a second series of nuclear tests.
Shahidur Rehman, the author of an authoritative book on Pakistan’s nuclear program me said the legal basis of the charges against Mr Khan was always very weak.
“How do you punish a man based on what seemed like hearsay,” he said. Pakistani government officials have said in the past they had gathered detailed evidence of Mr Khan’s activities, including evidence that was too sensitive to be presented in a courtroom.
However, Mr Khan’s public position strengthened in the wake of his house arrest, with many Pakistanis believing that he had been was framed.
“The Americans, Israel and India all opposed Abdul Qadeer Khan because he gave us our first Islamic nuclear bomb” said Javed Nazir, an Islamabad taxi driver. In parts of Islamabad, Mr Khan’s supporters distributed traditional south Asian dessert known as ‘mithai’ to celebrate his legal victory.
Does this mean that the US is slowly beginning to lose its control over what Pakistan does ??? And, what are the possible implications on the war on terror ???
Comment