Khan had tried to leak Pak N-details through letters

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan collapsed and sought clemency from President Pervez Musharraf after it was found that he tried to leak details of his country's nuclear programme through a letter to his daughter.

Khan, during his interrogation by Pakistani authorities on his clandestine nuclear deal, had written a letter to his daughter and another to Iranians, which were intercepted, a Pakistani Army officer told a media briefing in Washington, The News daily reported.
 
"Khan was adamant to disclose anything before his letters were intercepted but when he was confronted with his own handwriting and the likelihood that his own daughter becoming a target of British or US agencies because she 'carried' sensitive information about the Pakistan's programme, he collapsed and asked for clemency from President Musharraf," he said.

According to a media report, Lt. Gen. Khalid Khan, chief of Pakistan's Strategic and Plan Division, is at present in Washington trying to clear the stigma of nuclear proliferation against his country. The officer was reportedly himself involved in debriefing of the nuclear scientist.

Musharraf has also referred to these letters in his memoirs 'In the Line of Fire' but Khan's daughter has questioned the claim saying that it was yet another attempt to discredit her father.