NEW DELHI: Seven suspects, including Dr A Q Khan, the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme - sacked from his post as adviser to the prime minister at the weekend - continue to be investigated for allegedly selling atomic secrets to Iran and Libya.
The decision to formally charge and try them will only be taken after the probe is completed, the military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said in Islamabad yesterday, but declined to provide a time frame.
Sacking Dr Khan, revered as a national hero for developing Pakistan's atomic arsenal to counter neighbouring nuclear rival India from his cabinet minister level post on Saturday was the first official reaction by Islamabad after investigations began into charges that Pakistan had proliferated nuclear secrets and equipment to Iran and, to a lesser extent, to Libya.
Dr Khan's dismissal has infuriated opposition parties who called it an "insult" that could "jeopardize" national security.
"The entire nation feels humiliated over the treatment being meted out to a national hero by the government" Senator Saadia Abbasi of the Muslim League said.
"There is a grave sense of loss personally and as a nation we feel that our backbone has been broken, he added," he said.
The six party Islamic fundamentalist opposition has called for a nationwide strike on Friday in support of Dr Khan.
Under US pressure, Dr Khan was "retired" three years ago as head of Pakistan's nuclear weapons and missile development programmes by President Pervez Musharraf and made advisor to the prime minister. Ever since, he has been under Washington's watchful gaze.
The nuclear investigations followed last year's revelations by Iran to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency that Pakistani scientists may have provided Tehran blueprints, technical guidance and possibly even equipment for a uranium-enriched plant to make atomic bombs.
But the decision to remove Dr Khan, who for years has denied allegations of any wrong-doing, followed a meeting of Pakistan's National Command Authority that controls the country's nuclear assets and programmes presided over by President Musharraf.
The official statement after the Council meeting declared that Dr Khan had been removed to "facilitate" investigations into alleged acts of nuclear proliferation by a "few individuals".