President Pervez Musharraf, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and Information Minister Sheikh Rashid have all declared this week that those found guilty of selling nuclear technology and expertise to foreign countries will be "severely" punished.

Their pledges raise the awkward prospect of charging some of Pakistan's most revered men, elevated to national hero status for their contributions to making Pakistan a nuclear power and giving it near parity with nuclear-armed neighbour India.

"This is a very sensitive matter," Hayat was quoted as saying in the Dawn newspaper Tuesday.

"If some of those who were called national heroes have done this and are being exposed, the nation has the right to see true faces of those who have compromised Pakistan's national interest and used its assets for personal gains."

Already the investigation, which has seen at least 14 top nuclear scientists and administrators interrogated, has infuriated their families and Islamist organisations. They have held almost daily protests against the treatment of those questioned in recent weeks.

Rashid said the probe was now focussing on three scientists and four military officials.

"There are seven people under investigation now, four of them are associated with security matters," he told a press conference late Monday.

Of them, "one or two" may be guilty, he said.

"There may be one or two who (indulged in proliferation) for personal commercial gains.

"Those found involved will be dealt with severely."

The widely-revered "father" of Pakistan's nuclear program Abdul Qadeer Khan, a metallurgist who was charged with stealing the blueprints for uranium centrifuges while working in the Netherlands in the 1970s, is among those to have been questioned.

But as one of Pakistan's most respected national heroes, he was not taken into custody as the other 13 were.

The Asian Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Khan, 66, may be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, according to an unnamed government official.

Rashid refused to comment on the report saying only that Khan had not been placed under any restrictions. He said he would meet Khan on Tuesday.

The probe would be finished before the Muslim festival of Eid-al Adha next week, Rashid said.

"It is believed that one or two scientists undergoing debriefing will be freed after their statements."

Musharraf, who told the BBC Monday that guilty proliferators would be harshly punished, repeated the promise to a high-level meeting later, Rashid aid.

"The meeting reiterated that those found guilty will be dealt with severely and those found innocent will be allowed to go home," the minister said.

The government probe, under way since December, was prompted by information from the IAEA and subsequent trips by Pakistani investigators to Iran, Libya and IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

Rashid said the purpose of the probe is "not to disgrace the scientists. We accord our scientists full respect," Rashid said.

WAR.WIRE