Nuclear scientist's wife snubbed

Khan was sacked as a government special adviser earlier this year

The wife of Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan appears to have been dropped from a list of more than 200 people who received civil awards on Pakistan Day.

Handrina Khan was named last August as one of those who were to be decorated at a ceremony hosted by President Pervez Musharraf.

But her name was missing from the list before the ceremony took place.

In February Dr Khan publicly confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Name missing

Mrs Khan, also known as Haini Khan, was one of 230 people supposed to have been honoured on the occasion of Pakistan Day.

But her name was missing from the list on Tuesday evening before the ceremony was due to take place.

No government official was willing to comment on the omission, and it is not clear whether it is connected to Dr Khan's public admission that he sold nuclear secrets to foreign countries.

In February he said on television that he had acted without authorisation and begged forgiveness.

General Musharraf pardoned him, but said that the case had traumatised his country.

The president conferred the awards on Tuesday for people who are eminent in their respective fields.

The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Zaffarullah Jamali, federal ministers, chief ministers and ambassadors based in Islamabad.

Two journalists including the BBC's Afghan affairs expert Rahimullah Yusufzai are among those who were given awards.