Islamabad, Oct 10 (TIWN) Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who is the founder of Pakistani nuclear programme, passed away due to lung problems on Sunday at the age of 85, his family said.

The nuclear scientist was admitted to Khan Research Laboratories Hospital on Aug. 26 after testing positive for COVID-19 and was later moved to a military hospital in Rawalpindi, said the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.  "He was loved by our nation bec(ause) of his critical contribution in making us a nuclear weapon state," Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on Twitter. "For the people of Pakistan he was a national icon."  But A.Q. Khan, no relation to the prime minister, also confessed to being at the core of an operation that sold nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya.  Analysts and United Nations officials have said his illicit network, which specialised in helping countries skirt international sanctions, created the greatest nuclear proliferation crisis of the atomic age.