Pakistani experts divided over fate of US ties

ISLAMABAD: Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founding father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program who was accused of smuggling know-how to Iran, North Korea and Libya, has died at 85, authorities mentioned Sunday.

The atomic scientist, who spent the final years of his life below heavy guard, died within the capital Islamabad, the place he had just lately been hospitalized with COVID-19.

Khan died after being transferred to town’s KRL Hospital with lung issues, state-run broadcaster PTV reported.

He had been admitted to the identical hospital in August with COVID-19.

However after being permitted to return dwelling a number of weeks in the past, he was transferred again after his situation deteriorated, it mentioned.

Khan was hailed a nationwide hero for remodeling Pakistan into the world’s first Islamic nuclear energy and strengthening its clout towards rival and fellow nuclear armed nation India.

However he was declared by the West a harmful renegade for sharing know-how with rogue nuclear states.

The information of his dying sparked an outpouring of grief and reward for Khan’s legacy.

“Deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. A Q Khan,” Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted, stressing how cherished the nuclear scientist had been in Pakistan attributable to “his essential contribution in making us a nuclear weapon state.”

“For the folks of Pakistan he was a nationwide icon.”

The prime minister mentioned the scientist could be buried at Islamabad’s majestic Faisal Mosque at his request.

The funeral was scheduled to be held at 3:30p.m. (1030 GMT) Sunday.

Based on Islamic custom, burials ought to happen as quickly as attainable, often inside 24 hours of dying.

Khan was lauded for bringing the nation as much as par with India within the atomic area and making its defenses “impregnable.”

However he discovered himself within the worldwide crosshairs when he was accused of illegally sharing nuclear know-how with Iran, Libya and North Korea.

He confessed in 2004, after the Worldwide Atomic Power Company — a UN watchdog — put Pakistani scientists on the heart of a world atomic black market.

Pardoned by the nation’s army ruler Pervez Musharraf, he was as a substitute put below home arrest for 5 years.

“I saved the nation for the primary time after I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it once more after I confessed and took the entire blame on myself,” Khan mentioned in an interview in 2008.

After his home arrest was lifted, he was granted some freedom of motion across the leafy capital, however at all times flanked by authorities, who he needed to inform of his each transfer.

Khan, who was born in Bhopal in pre-partition British-ruled India on April 1, 1936, was additionally behind the nation’s aggressive missile improvement program.