ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's top court has decided to take up a petition for hearing next week which was filed by a leading nuclear scientist of the country, Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan, regarding his freedom of movement long before his demise in October last year, local media reported on Thursday.
Khan played a major role in helping his country build atomic weapons after India tested its first nuclear device in 1974. He was later accused of proliferating the technology and put under house arrest by the government in 2004 after he appeared on national television and accepted the charge.
According to Samaa News, a local channel, his request for hearing in the matter had been pending since 2019.
"Now a three-member bench will hear the petition on February 24," the channel reported.
A few years after his televised statement, Khan told an interviewer he had saved Pakistan twice.
"I saved the country for the first time when I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it again when I confessed and took the whole blame [of nuclear proliferation] on myself," he said.
He was pardoned by the government of former Pakistani military ruler General (r) Pervez Musharraf. However, his movements were restricted and he was confined by the authorities to his Islamabad residence.
