ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: Chief of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan on Thursday announced support to the Friday's strike call of Muttahida Majlis-i-Ammal against President General Pervez Musharraf and demanded an inquiry into the vilification campaign against the scientists.

Imran Khan feared closure of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) after the government admitted to charges of nuclear proliferation.

"No one in the world would buy the rubbish that nuclear proliferation was taking place under the nose of the entire intelligence network," he observed while talking to reporters at his new party office here.

"After the president was named in the foreign press reports, he forced Dr A Q Khan into making the confessional statements just to save his skin and power that rested on foreign crutches," Imran Khan said.

Khan said he had already assured Qazi Hussain Ahmed to participate in his strike call despite the fact that the PTI had reservations about the MMA's role in the passage of the 17th amendment bill.

"We are doing this for the interest of the country because we believe that our nuclear programme has been compromised by the present government through the television appearance of Dr Qadeer Khan," he said.

The PTI chief also told the reporters that he had also talked to PML-N's acting president Chaudhry Nisar to ask him to shun differences with MMA at this critical juncture and participate in their strike call.

Mr Khan was of the view that the public humiliation by bringing Dr Qadeer Khan on television had badly hurt the country's nuclear programme. "I felt disgusted when I saw Dr Khan on the television tendering public apology," he observed.

Imran Khan also asked the president to halt the policy of consistent capitulation under foreign pressure or face the wrath of the people for sell-out of vital national interests. "His policy of total capitulation in the face of pressure has plunged the nation into an unprecedented crisis," Imran Khan observed.

Musharraf's timid and weak-kneed policies have demoralized the people, crippled the vital national organizations and turned national heroes into villains, he said.

Imran Khan said the ongoing vilification campaign against the nuclear scientists was part of a well-planned conspiracy to undermine the nuclear programme.

Gen Musharraf has walked into a trap set by the enemies of Pakistan to destroy our nuclear programme, he observed. The president had stated that the nuclear non-proliferation could only be addressed in a global perspective. "Why do non- proliferation efforts ignore Israel, which has developed nuclear weapons clandestinely and exported nuclear technology to South Africa? Mr Khan questioned.

The PTI chief also condemned successive policy U-turns that have only led to more demands from the US to yield further on vital interests. It shows the inherent weakness of Gen Musharraf to sustain foreign pressure primarily because of his desperation to illegally cling onto power thus making him vulnerable to manipulation.

"No body can guarantee that US would not turn its guns towards Pakistan after its role on war on terrorism is over," he said.

Mr Khan also accused the president of playing into the hands of the enemies by making nuclear scientists scapegoats. After failing to destroy our nuclear programme from outside, the enemies have conspired to destabilize the entire nuclear establishment internally by targeting key nuclear scientists, he feared.