The court issued the order as it started hearing a petition from the father of Attiqur Rehman from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

In his petition, Siddiqur Rehman said his son was whisked away by Pakistan's intelligence services in northeastern Abbotabad on the day of his marriage.

"They picked him up two years ago and since then we do not know where he is detained and what are the charges against him," Rehman's lawyer Ikram Chaudhry told AFP.

"We have asked the court to order his production and immediate release," the lawyer said.

The court has asked the government to submit its answers at the next hearing on June 2.

The lawyer said the scientist was taken into custody in a "hunt of the country's nuclear scientists launched by the pro-American government at the behest of the United States."

Pakistan detained and interrogated 10 top scientists from the country's premium nuclear research facility, Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), in late 2003 as part of a probe into a nuclear proliferation network.

The crackdown led to the public admission in 2004 by the architect of the country's nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, that he sold nuclear secrets to other countries.

Since then Khan has been living under virtual house arrest in the capital, while the nine other KRL employees detained as part of the crackdown had all been released.

Pakistan said this month that the probe into the nuclear proliferation was closed and that it would not allow any foreign agency to interrogate Khan.

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