The sacking of Pakistan's nuclear pioneer, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, from a government position signals his possible trial over his alleged role in the transfer of nuclear technology to Iran and Libya, analysts said.
But prosecuting the 66-year-old metallurgist, who played a key role in making Pakistan a nuclear power, and is seen as a hero, would be a risky undertaking, and could expose the nuclear programme to damaging scrutiny, they added.
"The real challenge for the government would be the Pandora's box that such an action would open", Riffat Hussain, head of the Strategic Studies Department, Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, told AFP.
"Pushed to the wall, Dr A.Q. Khan can spill the beans, which can complicate matters - especially Islamabad's claims that technology leakage was done without official sanction", said Riffat Hussain.
Government officials said Dr A.Q. Khan has become a primary suspect in a two-month inquiry by Pakistani investigators into nuclear proliferation, adding the investigation was initiated after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) alerted Pakistan to the suspected role of some individuals in clandestine sales of nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya.
But already the radical Islamic parties and professional groups have protested against what they call a "US-prompted campaign" against the father of the Islamic world's first nuclear bomb, they said.
"The possibility of him being charged now exists," acknowledged political analyst Mohammad Afzal Niazi, saying: "It will be a traumatic experience for the country because Dr A.Q. Khan was the symbol of the nuclear programme."
Immediately after his sacking, the authorities beefed up security around Khan's home. Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said this was done because the government "is definitely concerned about his security."
Dr Khan's contribution to Pakistan's nuclear programme was the procurement of a blue-print for uranium centrifuges, which transform uranium into weapons-grade fuel for nuclear fissile material, he added.
He was charged with stealing it from The Netherlands while working for Anglo-Dutch-German nuclear engineering consortium Urenco, and bringing it back to Pakistan in 1976.
On his return, Dr Khan joined the uranium enrichment plant, and the project is credited with ultimately leading to Pakistan's first nuclear test explosion in May 1998.
In 1983, he was sentenced in absentia to four-year imprisonment by an Amsterdam court for attempted espionage, although the sentence was later overturned on an appeal.
Dr Khan has been questioned regularly since this most recent investigation started, but he has not been detained during the probe - unlike about a dozen other scientists and officials.
Five nuclear scientists have been exonerated by investigators while six other individuals, including three officials are still being interrogated with the probe, said to be on the verge of completion.
"I do not think it serves anyone's interest to call for punitive action against him," Hussain said, adding: "Whatever has happened cannot be undone. The important thing is to institute legal and institutional barriers against this kind of behaviour in the future."
"The Dr A.Q. Khan episode offers the government an opportunity to clean up whatever mess it manages to discover."
But former head of Punjab university's political science department, Dr Hasan Askari said it appeared that nuclear leakage did take place in the past, and the government was "justified" in doing what it was.
"If the government of Pakistan can take action against Dr A.Q. Khan, it is really determined to plug all leakage, and is serious about security and safety of the nuclear arsenal of the country", Askari said.
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