(AFP File Photo)
AFP- The father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has dissolved his political party after it failed to win a single seat in the May 11 elections.
Khan, 77, who is revered at home as a hero for building the Muslim world’s first atomic bomb, had formed his party, Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Pakistan (TTP) or Save Pakistan Movement in July last year.
“Yes, I have dissolved my party,” Khan told AFP.
His party, which fielded 111 candidates for different seats of the national and four provincial assemblies, failed to win even a single seat.
But he said he did not want to create any additional hurdles for the ruling government now that they had been elected.
“Elections have already taken place in the country and people have given mandate to Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and we should let them function smoothly,” he said.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N scored a comfortable win in the May 11 general election, paving the way for him to become Prime Minister for an unprecedented third term.
Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and PPP formed their governments in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and southern Sindh provinces.
However, Khan said his party will keep monitoring the governments’ performance and would become active again if they failed to deliver.
Khan admitted in 2004 that he ran a nuclear black-market selling secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea but he later retracted his remarks and in 2009 was freed from house arrest, although he was asked to keep a low profile.
