The opposition in the National Assembly on Wednesday alleged that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan was being "slowly poisoned" and demanded the government allow a delegation of parliamentary leaders to visit the scientist. Dr Khan has been diagnosed with prostrate cacer the government said on Tuesday. Speaking on points of order, MNAs of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal expressed reservations over the government's claims that Dr Khan was getting the proper treatment. "We fear that Dr AQ Khan is being poisoned. I want to bring our apprehensions on the record," Sahibzda Fazal Karim of the PML-N said. Tehmina Daultana said Dr Khan was being murdered and asked the government to let the nuclear scientist receive treatment at Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital.
Alternate Universe: Islamabad, 24 August (AKI/DAWN) - Two ruling party figures told the Pakistani National Assembly that they found detained nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan "merry and hearty" when they visited him on Wednesday. The government on Tuesday announced that Khan - under virtual house arrest since last year over accusations of running a rogue nuclear trafficking ring - was suffering from prostate cancer. However some opposition members voiced concern about the condition of the man considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb.
Pakistan Muslim League (PML) president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said he and Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani had a one-hour meeting with Dr Khan at his home earlier Wednesday. “He appeared to be ‘hashash, bashash’ (merry and hearty),” the PML chief said about the scientist who, he added, “came up to our car to see us off”.
His comment came after Tehmina Daultana of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) said she feared the scientist was “being killed slowly” and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) president Qazi Hussain Ahmed said he was prevented from meeting the “national hero”. The MMA president said the whole nation was concerned about Dr Khan’s health, and called for removal of restrictions. He said Dr Khan was also his personal friend with whom had could not even contact on telephone for a year.
A government statement on Tuesday said results of recent tests and diagnoses had indicated that Dr Khan, 71, was suffering from prostrate cancer and that further investigations were being conducted by a board of doctors. Information Minister Durrani said Dr Khan’s health was “all right” and he was looked after by a team of doctors. He advised the opposition not to politicise the matter.
Additional: ISLAMABAD - After more than two and a half years of virtual seclusion for his role in a nuclear proliferation scandal, Pakistan’s ailing “atom bomb father” AQ Khan Thursday appeared on the state-run station PTV, chatting with ex-prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. Hussain visited Khan, who was visibly frail, late Wednesday, after officials had reported a day earlier that he had been diagnosed with adino carcinoma (cancer) of the prostate.
| He's 71 and has a history of heart problems. If they didn't catch it early, it may have spread to other organs. |