FO spokesman rejects reports about Dr Khan

17 Feb, 2004

A Foreign Office spokesman has rejected reports that nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had suffered from heart problems but confirmed that "strict security restrictions were imposed" on him.
He said during his regular weekly news briefing here on Monday that the reports appearing in a section of the press in the morning were not true.
A report had claimed that Dr Qadeer had suffered a cardiac problem a week ago and special machinery from the Kahuta Research Laboratory was secretly taken to his house for examination.
He said the investigations conducted against the scientists were "our internal affair and we shall take all the decisions ourselves".
In the past Pakistan and India, he added, had discussed nuclear and conventional confidence-building measures (CBM). Pakistan, he said would like to address a strict regime on the issue between the two countries.
As far as International Atomic Energy Agency was concerned, the spokesman explained Islamabad had nothing to explain to it about the investigations. Pakistan was on the Board of Governors of the IAEA and "we remain in constant touch and both are co-operating in many fields".
Answering another question, the spokesman said that he expected the current investigations to conclude sooner and then only he would be able to answer more questions.

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