Pak govt to tighten A.Q. restrictions

By OUR PAKISTAN CORRESPONDENT

Islamabad

July 15: The Pakista-n government is set to tighten res-trictions on disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

"The government has been saying that Dr Khan is not under detention or house arrest but now is seeking to increase the restrictions on him. This is what it (the government) has said before the court," Dr Khan’s lawyer Javed Iqbal Jaffery told reporters outside the Islamabad high court. Dr Khan, the father of the country’s atomic bomb, has been effectively under house arrest in Islamabad since February 2004 when he confessed that he transferred nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. "The government has said that telephone and Internet facilities should be withdrawn," he said.

Mr Jaffery said that the government has filed a reply to the challenge by Dr Khan’s wife but he would not disclose its contents. "We have told the court that we are even ready for an in-camera hearing, keeping in view the national interest and security," he said.

Government lawyer Ahmad Bilal Sufi declined to comment. "We will not disclose the contents (of the reply) right now," he said. Later, the court adjourned hearing of the case till Wednesday. Dr Khan was pardoned by President Musharraf in 2004 but has been kept at his Islamabad villa ever since.