[Kzin]

He's loose ...

Pakistan Loosens Some Restrictions on Disgraced Nuclear Scientist
By SALMAN MASOOD

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 2 — Pakistan has eased some restrictions on the disgraced scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the developer of the country’s nuclear bomb, who confessed to having run an illicit global nuclear-proliferation network, officials and news media reports said Monday.

However, Pakistani officials denied reports in local news media that Mr. Khan was a free man.

Mr. Khan, 71, who has been under house arrest in Islamabad since 2004 after a televised apology to the nation, is now allowed to meet a select group of close family friends and relatives after they receive clearance from intelligence agencies, the reports said.

Mr. Khan is widely hailed as a national hero despite his confession that he sold nuclear technology to various countries.

An Urdu-language daily newspaper, Nawa-i-Waqt, reported Monday that Mr. Khan had recently been allowed to invite six friends individually for lunch or dinner. It quoted an unidentified official as saying that Mr. Khan, who has been treated for prostate cancer, is in good health. The report also said he had been told he would be allowed to go to his favorite restaurant in Islamabad and to visit the hill resorts of Bhurban and Murree.

Pakistani officials played down the report.

“There is no change in the status of Dr. A. Q. Khan,” Tasnim Aslam, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, said at a weekly news briefing here. Ms. Aslam said Mr. Khan continues to live a quiet life with his family, but she conceded that he has been meeting with friends and relatives. Initially he was not allowed to meet with anyone from outside his household.

Shahid-ur-Rehman, a Pakistani journalist who has written a book on Pakistan’s nuclear program, “The Long Road to Chagai,” and who had met Mr. Khan several times before his house arrest, said some restrictions were relaxed two to three months ago.

“It is a signal to the United States that Pakistan is not happy with America’s cooperation in the nuclear field with India,” Mr. Rehman said.

Some family friends and acquaintances, however, said they were still not allowed to meet Mr. Khan. A general restriction on access to him remained, said a family friend, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the news media about the subject. “The news of ease of restrictions is just propaganda — to gain political mileage,” the friend said. “He is still under house arrest.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/wo...3pakistan.html