The father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, who confessed to running a clandestine nuclear black market, was discharged from a hospital following a heart attack scare, an army spokesman said on Saturday.

Abdul Qadeer Khan was taken to a hospital in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad [Images], on Thursday to undergo an angiogram -- a procedure to check coronary arteries for blockages, Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said.

"He has been cleared. He didn't suffer any heart attack," Sultan told reporters, adding that Khan returned home late on Friday night. "His condition is satisfactory."

Officials say Khan has often complained of chest pains since he was put under house arrest in Islamabad in February
2004.

Khan, once hailed as a national hero for making Pakistan a nuclear power, confessed to selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea without government authorisation.