By Robert Birsel
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Pakistani government reserves the right to appeal against a High Court ruling declaring disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan a free citizen, the foreign minister said.
The court ruling ending five years of house arrest for the man at the center of the world's most serious nuclear proliferation scandal raised concern in the United States and elsewhere about the risk of more proliferation.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, trying to calm those worries, said in Europe on the weekend the government had broken up Khan's network and he no longer had any say on, or access to, any area of Pakistan's nuclear program.
Qureshi also said the government reserved the right to appeal against last Friday's court ruling.
"That option is there," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit, referring to Qureshi's comments on a possible appeal.
"But I would hasten to add that as far as we are concerned, as we have said time and again, this chapter is closed"
Khan, lionized by many Pakistanis as the father of the country's atomic bomb, was pardoned but placed under house arrest in 2004 by then president Pervez Musharraf soon after Khan made a televised confession to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
Pakistani authorities denied any connection to Khan's proliferation network but never let foreign investigators question him, saying it had interrogated him and passed on all relevant information.
Nevertheless, U.S. and international experts investigating proliferation still want to question him.
"WISHFUL THINKING"
Khan's detention had been relaxed over the past year. He was allowed to meet friends and traveled to Karachi at least once under tight security.
He also gave media interviews after a new government came to power in March. He recanted his 2004 confession saying he only took the blame in return for assurances from Musharraf's government that were never honored.
He did not elaborate but apparently irked the army by making comments about the smuggling of nuclear equipment that appeared to implicate the military and former army chief Musharraf, and was barred from speaking to reporters by a July court ruling.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week she was "very much concerned" about Khan's release.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama wanted assurances from Pakistan the scientist would not be involved in nuclear proliferation. Continued...
Last Friday, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani nuclear scientist, was freed from detention. Khan was detained under house arrest since 2004, he made a televised confession of selling nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. He is widely regarded as the founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, and most famous as a national hero. 

Dr. Qadeer filed a petition at the Islamabad High Court against the government, to address his detention and house arrest. He was freed and now lives as a "free citizen," but the terms upon which he and the government agreed remain secret.

He sent his regards to President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, and the Interior Adviser, and thanked them for their stance opposing his detention. 

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "very much concerned" about Khan's release. One of the spokesmen, Gordon Duguid, said Khan "remains a serious proliferation risk" and releasing him would be "extremely regrettable". Gillani has rejected such remarks, saying that Dr. Qadeer's network has been dismantled and said that he has been released under Court orders.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi tried to calm international worries. He reiterated that Khan's network had been broken up and said that the government reserves the right to appeal the court's ruling.

Khan, who is now 72 years old and has received treatment for prostate cancer, told reporters that he was finished with nuclear work and plans to devote himself to education.