ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench, was approached on Monday by the wife of Islamul Haq, principle staff officer to nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, for the release of her husband from the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence.

The petitioner stated that Dr Khan was under pressure and "virtual restraint," and alleged that the regime was making the nuclear scientists "scapegoat" to save itself.

The petitioner, Nilofar Islam, has made the federal government, through Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani, Inter-Services Public Relations Director-General Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan and ISI DG Lt-Gen Ehsanul Haq as respondents.

In the petition, filed through Advocate Chaudhry Ikram, she stated that her husband was forcibly and without warrants taken away from the house of Dr Khan on Saturday by two army officers belonging to the ISI.

She stated that she was informed about the arrest of her husband by Dr Khan on the telephone. She expressed the apprehension that her husband would be handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation or other agencies of the United States.

The regime was "engaged in illegal and unconstitutional activities to save their skin and are using the detenu and others as scapegoats," the petitioner stated.

She stated that the son of Libyan leader Col Moammer Qadhafi and the foreign ministry of Iran had denied the involvement of Pakistan's scientists in their nuclear programmes.

She appealed to the court to declare Mr Haq's detention illegal and direct the respondents not to move the detainees from Islamabad or hand them over to the FBI or any other agency till the decision of the case.