Pakistan’s disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was forced to make a false confession about his role in the country’s nuclear program and was only working under Government orders, his wife Hendrina Khan has said in a rare interview to clear her husband’s name.

In an interview carried in the German news magazine Der Spiegel, Hendrina has said that A Q Khan always worked under government orders and made two trips to North Korea, including one in 2000, on the specific request of General Musharraf.

Giving an account of her husband’s role in Pakistan’s nuclear program, she has said that while visits to North Korea — where he was said to have shipped centrifuge tubes used to enrich uranium — were made on government authorization, her husband never visited Iran or Libya or took part in any deal with the countries.

Hendrina has said that Khan made the false confession as he is a ‘great patriot’ and wanted to save Pakistan from humiliation in the international community. She says that while Khan kept his side of the bargain, promises made to him by the Musharraf regime, including the right to travel within Pakistan, were not met.

“If the truth were to come out, it would cause the Pakistani Army great embarrassment because it would prove they were not as innocent as they claim to be and the blame does not rest solely on one person as they have tried to make the whole world believe,” she says.

Hendrina, who married Khan in 1964, says that the Army was in the know about the scientist’s dealings with North Korea and his entire research project was under the scrutiny of the Strategic Planning Division.

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