Abdul.Qadeer Khan can move freely in country(Pakistan Lifts Restrictions on Nuclear Scientist)

[.BZU.]

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court freed history’s most successful nuclear proliferator, Abdul Qadeer Khan, from house arrest on Friday, lifting the restrictions imposed on him since 2004 when he confessed to running an illicit international network. Dr. Khan, 73, considered in the West as a rogue scientist and a pariah who sold technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran, is revered a national hero in Pakistan for his role in transforming the country into a nuclear power.
The ruling, appeared to be as much a political decision to shore up public support by President Asif Ali Zardari, as a legal one, issued by a court of limited jurisdiction set up under his military predecessor, Pervez Musharraf. It was accompanied by a secret agreement between Dr. Khan and the civilian government, the contents of which were not disclosed.
The decision immediately presented the Obama administration with a difficult decision about whether reverse a Bush administration policy and demand that the C.I.A. and international nuclear officials be given access to Dr. Khan to interview him about all he knows about the 15 years during which he sold nuclear technology on the black market.
“We believe A.Q. Khan remains a serious proliferation risk,” Gordon Duguid, Acting Deputy State Department spokesman, said, expressing concern that he would be freed. “The proliferation support that Khan and his associates provided to Iran and North Korea has had a harmful impact on the international — on international security, and will for years to come.”
The ruling allows Dr. Khan to travel once again in Pakistan, though the government may still prevent him from going abroad. It was also seemed unlikely that Dr. Khan would be actively involved again in the government’s nuclear program.
The Zardari made no statement on the court decision. But Washington’s concerns were defiantly dismissed by Dr. Khan, beaming and smiling, who was thronged by supporters and television cameras outside his residence in an upscale neighborhood upon news of his release.
“Let them talk,” he said. “Are they happy with our God? Are they happy with our Prophet? Are they happy with our leaders? Never, so why should we bother what they say about us.?”
Dr. Khan added: “I would be more worried about what you say about me, not what Bush says or what Dick Cheney says,” he said, addressing the crowd of Pakistani reporters. “I don’t damn care.”
Dr. Khan also made clear that the decision would not have been made without the support of the Zardari government, with which the Obama administration hopes to build a more productive relationship as it seeks to fight the Taliban and Qaeda networks that have roosted in Pakistan.
“All this happened because of the keen interest taken by the president, the prime minister and especially Rehman Malik, who has looked into the case, reviewed it, discussed it with the government, discussed it with the concerned authorities,” Dr. Khan said. Mr. Malik is the senior official in the Pakistani Interior Ministry.
If Dr. Khan is allowed to speak of all he knows, or chooses to do so, he could cause considerable embarrassment to previous Pakistani government and the military.
In July 2008, he told Pakistani reporters that Pakistan had transported uranium enrichment equipment to North Korea in 2000 with the full knowledge of the country’s army, then headed by Mr. Musharraf.
But the Zardari government appeared to have made the calculation that the benefits of releasing Dr. Khan outweighed the perceived slight to Washington.
“A.Q. Khan’s release is a good symbolic move that is likely to restore faith in the civilian government’s bid to sustain its sovereignty,” said Rafia Zakaria, a columnist for Daily Times, a leading English daily in Pakistan. “Something which is essential if Pakistanis are to believe that the war on terror is not just being fought at America’s behest and is something in their own interest.”
Other analysts agreed. The lifting of restrictions served to pacify the powerful conservative lobby in Pakistan who wanted greater freedoms for Dr. Khan, according to Talat Masood, a retired army general.“This has taken away pressure on the government,” Mr. Masood said. “It has brought goodwill on the government because of his popularity.”
“The government will go out of its way to assure the international community and the United States in particular that he will devote most of his time to education and do nothing on nuclear matters,” Mr. Masood added. “That’s very important for Pakistan’s credibility.”
Mr. Musharraf, the former president, pardoned Dr. Khan. In the most recent investigations, the Khan network was found to have trafficked in a tested, compact and efficient bomb design that could significantly shorten the time needed to build a weapon and could be delivered by many existing missiles, like Iran’s Shahab-3.
But it the interviews to local television networks outside his residence, Dr. Khan, said his 2004 confession to involvement in proliferation was a “matter of the past.”

The lawyer for Dr. Khan, Ali Zafar, said the court ruled that he was a "free citizen" entitled to fundamental rights. The decision, according to Mr. Zafar, said that Dr. Khan was not involved in criminal or proliferation activities and hence his confinement to house arrest was illegal.
The ruling also said that Dr. Khan would be given full protection by the state, the details of which were outlined in a secret document, Mr. Zafar said.
In a statement late Friday, the Pakistani Foreign Office declined to elaborate on what it called the court declaration making Dr. Khan a “free man.” It said the “so called A.Q. Khan affair is a closed chapter.”
But there was an unusual amount of secrecy around the court decision.
A written document from the court, briefly flashed on Pakistani television, said that details of the agreement between Dr. Khan and the government could not be disclosed. And Pakistani news reports said implications of the agreement between the government and Dr. Khan that prompted the court ruling were unclear.
A recent book on Dr. Khan, by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins, said he had done more to destabilize the world’s nuclear balance than anyone else.
“For the first time, an individual demonstrated convincingly that the existing international safeguards and mindset were no longer operative, leading to the grim conclusion that any ruthless or unstable regime — or individual, for that matter — with the will and money could acquire the bomb,” Mr. Franz and Ms. Collins wrote in the book, “The Nuclear Jihadist.”Pakistani television played pictures all through the day of Dr. Khan, wearing an open necked shirt and slacks, as he waved to supporters outside his house in the capital, Islamabad.
The court’s decision poses a challenge for the Obama administration. The United States has repeatedly asked Pakistan for permission to interview Dr. Khan about his network of nuclear traders. But Pakistani officials have turned down the requests by the Central Intelligence Agency and international atomic inspectors to directly question him.
Mr. Masood said one of the reasons it was unlikely Dr. Khan would travel abroad was because of the threat of abduction by people who wanted his information.
According to Pakistani press reports, under the court ruling Dr Khan must give 48 hours notice if he wants to leave Islamabad.
The Zardari government had already eased some of the restrictions placed on Dr. Khan by the house arrest order of the Musharaff era. For example, he was allowed to eat at restaurants, and wrote occasional newspaper articles.
Dr. Khan is a metallurgist, an expert in centrifuges used to produce enriched uranium for bomb fuel, and much of the technology he sold involved enrichment.
Last month, the United States State Department announced sanctions on 13 individuals, including Dr. Khan, and three private companies that the United States said were involved in the Khan nuclear proliferation network.
In its announcement, the State Department specified that Dr. Khan and his associates provided Iran and Libya with centrifuge components, designs and, in some cases, complete centrifuges. According to the statement, the United States also believed that Dr. Khan and his associates provided centrifuge designs, equipment and technology to North Korea.
He provided Libya with nuclear weapon designs, the State Department said.
Assessing the damage that Dr. Khan had brought, the statement said that his network enabled countries to leapfrog the slow, incremental stages of other nuclear weapons development programs.