The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday declared nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan a free man, five years after he was effectively put under house arrest for allegedly operating a proliferation network. The chief justice of the IHC, Sardar Mohammad Aslam, made the decision after a closed session with lawyers for the government and Dr Khan — revered by many Pakistanis as the father of the country’s atomic bomb. ‘The petitioner is declared a free citizen and writ petition is disposed of,’ said a written order issued by the court.

Dr Khan has been effectively under house arrest in Islamabad since February 2004, when he confessed on television to sending nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, although he later retracted his remarks. Although military ruler and then president Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan in 2004, he was kept at his residence guarded by troops and intelligence agents.
Speaking on the grounds of his villa, tucked in one of Islamabad’s smartest neighbourhoods, the scientist thanked President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, whose civilian government took office last March.

‘This has happened because of the keen interest taken by the president and prime minister, and especially the advisor to the prime minister on the interior, Rehman Malik, who looked into the case and reviewed it,’ said Khan. ‘As far as I have been told, I will go anywhere in Pakistan without any restrictions and I will get whatever security that I had with me previously.’
‘If I want to travel abroad, I will have to seek permission from the government,’ he told a bevy of reporters.

‘I know the country is not doing well in the field of education and I will now use all my energies to promote education in the country,’ said Dr Khan.

US, UK and France were quick to condemn the release of A. Q. Khan. The United States says the release of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan – a Pakistani scientist – accused of leaking atomic secrets is ‘extremely regrettable’ and ‘unfortunate.’
  
Meanwhile, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has once again called on Pakistan to allow IAEA access to AQ Khan in order to ‘seek information about nuclear proliferation activities in particular the smuggling of nuclear secrets to Iran And North Korea.’  ‘We are obviously a little concerned by this decision,’ French foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier added. ‘We hope that the proliferation activities of Mr Khan and his network in the past are absolutely over,’ he said.
 
‘We know what role Mr Khan and his network played in the spread worldwide of nuclear technology for military use. We hope that this release will not lead to the pursuit of these activities which are illegal, dangerous and very worrying for international security.’

These are countries which are providing or have provided nuclear technology to Israel and India. Both the countries have nuclear programm for militry use. 

The court has asked the government to provide security to Mr. Khan so what ever he does or where ever he goes will be closely monitored by the government. So question is is he really a free man or it has been done just to please the people of Pakistan?

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