Khan, left, founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, meets Musharraf at the presidential palace in Rawalpindi (AFP)

ISLAMABAD, February 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Pakistan's president said Thursday, February 5, he had pardoned the founder of the country's nuclear program, who has confessed to leaking nuclear secrets abroad.

"I give him pardon," President Pervez Musharraf told a news conference, a day after Abdul Qadeer Khan's dramatic televised confession, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Khan, revered as a hero in Pakistan for founding the country's nuclear program, had begged forgiveness in an extraordinary broadcast televised to the nation on Wednesday, February 4, where he admitted leaking nuclear secrets overseas.

Pakistan's cabinet Thursday recommended that the disgraced architect of the country's nuclear program be pardoned, officials said.

"The cabinet recommended to the President to pardon Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan for unauthorized proliferation activities," an official statement said.

The cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali reviewed the mercy petition of Khan and "decided to forward its recommendations to the president to pardon the scientist," it said.

Investigators earlier said Khan had shared sensitive nuclear technology with Iran, Libya and North Korea for more than a decade.

The revelations have embarrassed the government of President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally of the United States, which has included Iran and North Korea in its "axis of evil".

Pakistan had vehemently denied previous allegations of involvement in proliferating nuclear technology. Khan stressed in his televised statement on Wednesday that he had acted alone.

"There was never ever any kind of authorization for these activities by the government, I take full responsibility for my actions and seek your pardon," 66-year-old Khan said in his address.

"I have chosen to appear before you to offer my deepest regrets and unqualified apologies to a traumatized nation," he said following a meeting with Musharraf.

Analysts in Pakistan remained unconvinced however, saying it was hard to see how Khan could have acted without the knowledge of higher authorities.

"The issue of the state responsibility or institutional responsibility regarding the nuclear leaks remain wide open," Riffat Hussain, head of the strategic studies department at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University told AFP.

"It really strains the credibility to argue that he could have done all this without the tacit approval of those who were supposed to have kept a watch on him," Hussain said.

Khan's confession followed the questioning of more than a dozen nuclear scientists, engineers and administrators during a probe into leaks of Pakistan's nuclear know-how.

The investigation was prompted by information from Iran via the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that was forwarded to Pakistan in November 2003.

Tip Of The Iceberg

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei Thursday described the revelations from Khan as the "tip of the iceberg" of illegal trafficking, adding that Khan was "was not working alone."

"We need to follow this through," ElBaradei said. "We have to make sure it will not be repeated."

Khan was sacked as a government science advisor last week after a two-month investigation into the leaking of nuclear secrets.

Authorities meanwhile said Thursday they had issued formal arrest orders on five scientists and administrators, including several colleagues of Khan, who had already been detained in connection with the probe ".

At least five people have been detained for a period of three months, Interior Ministry spokesman Rauf Chaudhry told AFP.

"They include nuclear scientists and administrators belonging to the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL)," he said.

They were detained under Pakistan's security law, he said.

Chaudhry said the detainees included senior KRL scientists Mohammad Farooq, doctor Nazir Ahmed and administrators retired Brigadier Tajwar Khan and former Brigadier Malik Sajawal.

Khan's principal staff officer, retired Major Islam ul Haq, has also been detained, he added.