Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist AQ Khan has informed a court here that the government has placed a ban on water and medical supplies to him under the garb of a court order.

Pak govt places ban on water and medical supplies to AQ Khan

Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist AQ Khan has informed a court here that the government has placed a ban on water and medical supplies to him under the garb of a court order.

Khan's counsel Syed Ali Zafar told a bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday that though arguments in a case for easing restrictions on the scientist were going on, the government had barred Khan from going out of his residence even to visit his brother who is critically ill in a hospital.

Zafar said Khan's relatives and friends too had been stopped from visiting him and the government, in an unprecedented move, had restricted the supply of water to his residence and stopped his doctor and medical staff from visiting him. This, Zafar contended, could severely jeopardize Khan's health.

The counsel alleged that all this was being done in the garb of a recent interim order issued by the High Court in which the bench had directed the federal government to provide security to the scientist.

He said the government's action amounted to a most serious breach of Khan's basic fundamental rights and that this could not have been the intention of the High Court when it passed the recent order. Zafar asked the court to direct the government not to dictate the terms of security for Khan.

The federal government has filed a petition in the Lahore High Court asking it to bar Khan from moving around freely, meeting people and giving interviews to the media in the interest of national security.

Khan was placed under house arrest in early 2004 after he confessed to running a nuclear proliferation network on state-run television.

Following a secret understanding between Khan and the government last year, a court eased some of the restrictions imposed on him. However, Khan has filed several petitions seeking further easing of restrictions on his movements.

Recent revelations by the Western media on the basis of a letter written by Khan to a journalist have caused embarrassment to the Pakistan government, which insists that the scientist's case is a closed chapter.

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