( dpa ) - The political backers of President Pervez Musharraf have pledged to free disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who is under house arrest for running an international nuclear proliferation smuggling network, media reports said Monday.
"No one has control over the difficulties being faced by Dr Qadeer. Sometimes, someone has to make a sacrifice in the best national interest and Dr Qadeer has made that sacrifice," Mushahid Hussain, general secretary of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), told the BBC's Urdu Service.
He said if the PML-Q wins crucial upcoming parliamentary elections on February 18, Khan will not only be freed but his status will also be restored. He did not elaborate on what that meant.
The 71-year-old scientist headed Pakistan's nuclear programme for three decades. In 2003, the US Central Agency informed Musharraf that Khan over the years had supplied centrifuges and other restricted material to North Korea, Iran and Libya.
Following Khan's televised apology to the nation in 2004, Musharraf pardoned him because of his service to the country but placed him under detention at his home in an elite residential district of the capital Islamabad. Any move to release him would likely irk the US Bush administration, which is Musharraf's main international ally.
However, Khan remains revered by the Pakistani public as the father of the country's nuclear weapons programme. Opposition politicians, particularly former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, have aggressively denounced his detention in their election campaign against the ruling party.