ISLAMABAD, March 22, (Agencies): Pakistan wants to investigate a disgraced scientist on charges of transferring nuclear secrets to Iraq and Iran, a government lawyer said Monday, just before important nuclear talks begin with Washington.
The petition by the Pakistan government for court permission to investigate Abdul Qadeer Khan comes days before the opening of strategic talks between the United States and Pakistan, where Islamabad will likely ask for a civilian nuclear deal similar to the one between India and Washington.
“We basically seek permission to see Dr (Abdul) Qadeer Khan and investigate into the matter as well as restrain him from making any statement and interacting with anybody,” government lawyer Naveed Inayat Malik told Reuters by telephone.

The petition was filed in the Lahore High Court after two articles in the Washington Post, published on March 10 and 14, reported that the Pakistani nuclear scientist had tried to help Iran and Iraq develop nuclear weapons, Malik said.
Those deals allegedly occurred with the knowledge of the Pakistani government. Both the Pakistan government and Khan have denied the reports.
The court adjourned the proceeding until Wednesday after holding a preliminary hearing on the petition on Monday.
Khan’s lawyer Ali Zafar described the government’s move as an attempt to delay the court’s verdict on Khan’s earlier challenge to the restrictions placed by the government on his movements.
The government says the restrictions are for his safety, but Khan says they are unfair limits on his daily life.

Also:
QUETTA, Pakistan: Gunmen riding a motorcycle Monday shot dead a college principal and renowned educationist in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s restive southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said.
Fazal Bari, principal of private boys’ college Tameer-e-Nau, was killed in the drive-by shooting when he was travelling to work in his car, senior police official Tariq Manzoor told AFP.
“Bari died on the spot and his driver was wounded,” Manzoor said, linking the attack to a recent wave of unrest and “targeted killings.”
Some 250 students blocked a main road during a march towards the residence of the Baluchistan governor to protest against the killing, prompting police to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd, an AFP reporter said.
Baluchistan is rife with Islamist militancy, sectarian violence between majority Sunnis and minority Shiite Muslims and regional insurgency.
Baluch rebels rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s wealth of natural resources, in the region on the Afghan and Iranian borders. Hundreds of people have died since then.