ISLAMABAD, 23 December 2003 — The eminent scientist and father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan is being questioned about reports of possible links between the Pakistani and Iranian nuclear programs, the government said yesterday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told reporters that Khan was being questioned in connection with “debriefings” of several scientists working at his Khan Research Laboratories, a uranium enrichment plant near Islamabad. “He is too eminent a scientist to undergo a normal debriefing session,” Masood Khan said. “However, some questions have been raised with him in relation to the ongoing debriefing sessions.”

The spokesman denied reports Khan was under restriction. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed earlier acknowledged that “one or two scientists” were being questioned about media reports of possible links between the Pakistani and Iranian nuclear programs.

“We are investigating,” he said. “We are questioning one or two scientists after we heard allegations through the media.” Yesterday the Daily Times said Khan had been placed under restriction as part of the investigation, but Masood Khan denied this.

“He is not under arrest, he is not under detention, he is under no restriction,” he said.

However, the scientist, a national hero after developing a nuclear bomb to rival neighboring India’s, had not been allowed to receive visitors at his home, nor to leave it since the probe began last week.