Top Pakistani nuclear scientist tests positive for COVID-19

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD (AA) - Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, often referred to as AQ Khan, has been admitted to a military-run hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, state-run media said on Thursday.

According to his spokesman, Khan, 85, was admitted at Khan Research Laboratories hospital on Aug. 26, after he tested positive for COVID-19, Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Khan has been placed on a ventilator in the hospital as his health condition deteriorated due to the infection.

"The news, of Fakhr-e-Pakistan (Proud of Pakistan) Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, shifted to a ventilator is very disturbing and sad," Shehbaz Sharif, the country's main opposition leader and head of the former ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, tweeted.

He requested the nation to pray for Khan's early recovery.

Khan was born in 1936 in Bhopal, India, and immigrated along with his family to Pakistan in 1947, after the partition of the sub-continent.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, a pioneer of Pakistan’s nuclear program, who later fell out of favor with the military establishment in the country during Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s rule, was placed under house arrest in 2004, but later released in 2009 after Musharraf's rule ended.

Khan led the country's nuclear program for some 25 years and is considered a national hero in Pakistan.

- Pakistan faces 4th wave of COVID-19

Pakistan is currently reeling from a deadly fourth wave of the pandemic, logging 4,103 fresh cases and 89 deaths over the past 24 hours, the ministry said on Thursday.

The country's overall caseload and death toll stand at 1.16 million and 25,978, respectively.

Pakistan has been recording daily cases between 3,000 and 4,000 for the past several weeks, putting pressure on the already over-burdened hospitals, especially in the big cities.

Islamabad has imposed a new set of restrictions, which includes the closure of amusement parks, shrines, gyms, and cinemas, and a ban on indoor ceremonies and dining at restaurants.

All commercial activities – except for essential services – end at 8 p.m., whereas they are closed for two days a week.

Educational institutions across the country remain open for three days a week with 50% attendance.

The South Asian nuclear country has so far inoculated over 58 million people out of a total 208 million population.