AQ Khan release plan forwarded to Gilani

Islamabad, Apr 9: A plan to facilitate the early release of detained Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan has been forwarded to Prime Minister Makhdoom Yousuf Raza Gillani.

According to sources close to the Prime Minister's Advisor on Interior and Narcotics Control, Rehman Malik, an extraordinary meeting was held here on Tuesday to discuss Dr. Khan's release, and it was decided that a summary of the proposed release plan and a review of the overall security situation, would be forwarded to the Prime Minister. According to The Nation, special directives have been sent to all parliamentarians to avoid an untoward incident. Federal Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah and other high officials of the law enforcing agencies attended the meeting.

The government has to now decide when it would release Dr.Khan.

Meanwhile, Dr.Khan continues to claim that he is being persecuted, and has demanded his freedom and a return to normal life.I am being persecuted for the sake of one individual and the concept of my detention, as a security measure is totally wrong", he said this while talking to a private TV channel on Tuesday.

"I want freedom and to live a normal life with my family," he said, adding that Pakistan's nuclear weapons were absolutely safe and secure.

Commenting on reports that the new government might ease some curbs on him, Dr.Khan said he was confident that they would not hand him over to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

He also said that he is confident that the Pakistan army would protect him.

Commenting on Iran nuclear programme, he said, Tehran has every right to become nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

Khan, founder of Pakistan's nuclear programme, was put under house arrest in 2004 after he confessed on state-run television that he had sold nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. He has been pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf.

ANI