Islamabad, Aug. 24: Pakistan media today splashed pictures of the country’s top nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan meeting one his old friends — chief of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein.

This is the first time since January 2004 that Khan has found himself again in the spotlight.

Even the state-run Pakistan Television aired visuals of the meeting, which took place two days after the government announced that he was suffering from prostate cancer.

The frail but confident Khan was quoted as saying by information minister Mohammad Ali Durrani, who accompanied Hussein, that the illness was God’s test and he would fight it with strength.

After the meeting, the two leaders told the National Assembly last night that they found the detained nuclear scientist “merry and hearty”.

However, Opposition members, including chief of the six-party Islamic Opposition alliance Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Qazi Hussein Ahmad and PML (Nawaz) legislator Tehmina Daultana, showed concern for the health of Abdul Qadeer Khan. Daultana feared the scientist was “being killed slowly”.