For the gullible masses of Pakistan, A.Q. Khan, for the past 25-odd years, has been Mohsin-e-Pakistan (Pakistan’s biggest benefactor), Father of the Nuclear Bomb, Hero of Islam, Angel among the Sinners, ‘Alive-Martyr’, etc. But for the liberals — a negligible minority — he has been a publicity hound, racketeer and scoundrel who was using Islam, the two-nation theory and permanent animus with India and Israel for personal gains through a clique of journalists on his payroll.
When some environmental activists objected that the sewer of his house at the bank of Rawal Lake — a source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands in Rawalpindi — was polluting the water, an Urdu columnist wrote: “The citizens should be honoured that they are drinking the effluent of Mohsin-e-Pakistan!” So sick was the mentality of these domesticated journalists!
They went to the extent of suggesting that Khan be appointed Pakistan’s president like Abdul Kalam, the architect of the Indian nuclear programme. The liberals in Pakistan, however, argued that India had appointed a minority member of its society as president. If Pakistan really wanted to be a creative copycat, it should amend the Constitution, which bars minorities from holding such offices!
The vernacular press still portrays Khan as a great nuclear scientist. The reality is, he is just a metallurgist! For environmentalists, Khan has been the source of huge pollution — not in the context of the Rawal Lake, but by dumping nuclear waste in the Arabian Sea.
{{/usCountry}}The vernacular press still portrays Khan as a great nuclear scientist. The reality is, he is just a metallurgist! For environmentalists, Khan has been the source of huge pollution — not in the context of the Rawal Lake, but by dumping nuclear waste in the Arabian Sea.
{{/usCountry}}Khan had no tolerance for criticism. He reportedly masterminded the ‘character-assassination’ of some anti-nuke voices — Pervez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear physicist at the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), was the worst victim. An Urdu daily accused him of digging the symbolic grave of Khan. Soon after he wrote to Khan saying that was incorrect, Hoodbhoy’s name appeared on the government’s Exit Control List (ECL), which bars his travel outside Pakistan. Subsequently, media reports labelled him an Ahmadi — a member of the most persecuted sect, liable to public and State threats.
The liberals never revered Khan as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb. “A.Q. Khan has not discovered this technology. It is an old technology. He has not added any innovation to it,” said Prof A.H. Nayyar, a physicist at QAU. The stark reality is, nuclear Pakistan in the last 56 years has managed to get only eight patents registered internationally! Moreover, nuclear Pakistan is unable to handle scientific and technological disasters. If a disease attacks its crops or livestock, Pakistan doesn’t have the capacity to handle it.
While the media portrayed Khan as a holy saint, the truth is completely different. Like any ordinary human being, a beautiful woman was his weakness. Some years ago, he was so enamoured by a charming medical doctor that he set up a non-profit organisation in a huge plaza and appointed her as its head. He also bought her a palatial villa in a posh area of Islamabad. The lady is on the ECL now!
Khan is in illegal possession of the Institute of Behavioural Sciences (IBS), which was established in 1990 for the free treatment of the mentally affected. Using the armed men of
the Fauji Foundation, a corporate entity governed by the Pakistan army, Khan has been physically preventing IBS doctors from executing a vacation order by the judiciary. He
has collected donations worth $ 1.10 million that are yet to be spent on the treatment of some 10,000 patients.
Pakistan started its nuclear programme under the garb of ‘peace’ and ‘prosperity’ but failed to achieve either. It has proved to be a hub of proliferation activities. It intensified the nuclear race in the region. It aggravated India-Pakistan relations, which were much better in the Sixties. Instead of boosting the country’s image, it brought Pakistan a bad name. This so-called ‘national asset’ has become the country’s biggest liability.
The nuclear programme should have been used to provide the poor with cheap electricity. But it only increased hunger and penury — half of Pakistan’s population live below the poverty line and 80 per cent of them have no access to clean drinking water. A huge majority do not have access to health and education.
The country’s natural resources are depleting at a very fast pace. In the next 20 years, Pakistan will have consumed all its fossil fuels. Pakistan has paid an exorbitant price
for pursuing its nuclear programme — the economic and social murder of its poor people, who were more empowered when the country was non-nuclear.
Who says Pakistan’s problem is ‘territorial security’, not human security? It cannot have territorial security without investing in human development. Developing an arsenal of bombs is no development. Real development should be sustainable, economically sound, environmentally responsible and socially equitable. Pakistan is known as a nation that is economically fragile, environmentally and socially corrupt, irresponsible and inequitable — all this because of its shortsighted policies, be it on nuclear issues, Kashmir or Afghanis-tan! It is treading the same path that led to the USSR’s disintegration.
The writer is an independent journalist based in Islamabad