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Islamabad: The detained architect of Pakistan's nuclear program rebuked Pervez Musharraf on Thursday, saying the country has "gone to the dogs" in the last 10 years.
In an unusually candid interview, Abdul Qadeer Khan also complained of myriad health problems since he was put under house arrest for passing nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Khan remains a national hero in Pakistan, despite confessing four years ago to heading a clandestine proliferation network. Starting in the 1970s, he led the uranium enrichment program that made Pakistan the Islamic world's first nuclear power.
The anniversary of Pakistan's 1998 atom bomb test - giving it a deterrent against historical archrival India - was marked on Wednesday, amid growing calls for Khan to be freed.
Speaking by phone from his Islamabad residence, Khan told Dawn News television that the test had proved skeptics in the West wrong that "we were not capable of doing anything."
Yet hopes Pakistan could then make progress in economic development after becoming "self-sufficient" in national defense had not been realized, he said.
"This has not happened. The last 10 years, the country has gone to the dogs," Khan said. "People are hungry. You see the (rising) prices and all."
Asked if he blamed Musharraf for the nation's problems, Khan said: "The team leader is to be responsible for the failure of the team but all those who were with him did not
assert themselves and do a proper job."
Former army chief Musharraf dominated for eight years until he was sidelined by Pakistan's new civilian administration, elected in February.
Khan said that the government should be given time to cope with Pakistan's many problems.
Khan's forthright comments touching on the nation's volatile politics appear to reflect his increasing confidence in speaking out and the diminishing standing of
Musharraf.
The president's office on Thursday moved for a second successive day to dismiss rumors that Musharraf is about to resign as political opponents clamor for his impeachment.
His spokesman Rashid Qureshi said the president would complete his tenure, which runs through 2012.
Ex-premier and party leader Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday labeled Musharraf a "traitor" and claimed the ruling coalition had agreed to oust him.
But leader of the main party, Asif Ali Zardari, appeared to take a more measured approach. He said his party had not accepted the "status quo" but that "today I think it's time for dialogue."
Sharif's party in particular has strongly advocated the release of Khan, who was ordered detained by Musharraf in 2004 after the scientist made a televised confession taking
responsibility for selling nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Musharraf pardoned Khan but refused to let international investigators directly speak to the scientist, amid lingering questions about whether army and government officials had known about his proliferation activities. Pakistan insists they did not.
Khan told Dawn that the restrictions on his movements had not been relaxed although he was allowed out of his house to visit the Academy of Sciences this month to mourn a former colleague.
Khan said he was free to use the phone but soldiers still guard his house in a swank district of the Pakistani capital and "only a very few people have been allowed to
come and see me."
Khan said his health had deteriorated because of his detention. He said he had suffered many illnesses including deep vein thrombosis and prostate cancer - for which he
underwent surgery last year.
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