ISLAMABAD'S CAB drivers, whose vehicles were adorned with pictures of Bollywood actresses, are now obsessed with AQ Khan's picture.
Many carry rear window re posters saying: "A Q Khan, please forgive us. The nation is ashamed of the shabby treatment that you have received. We don't deserve a hero like you!"
But many cab drivers frankly admit they are carrying the posters because they have been paid to do so.
"I am not concerned whether he is a criminal or not. I have replaced the poster of Kareena Kapoor with Khan because I have been promised a monthly sum of Rs 1,200 for this ad-campaign. I have already been paid the half money," said one driver, Kamran Ali.
When asked who pays them, most cite a local cleric. "I was given this project by Qari Yousaf. He promised a monthly sum of Rs 1,200 plus Rs 10,000 if I would have the poster displayed on cabs running around Islamabad and Rawalpindi," said another cabbie Jamil Ahmad. Qari Yousaf, prayer leader at a mosque in Rawalpindi, denied the taxi drivers? claim. "But I fully support what the posters inscribe. I fully support the campaign. Dr Saheb is our hero. He has been made a scapegoat. But I have nothing to do with this so-called publicity campaign. This must be a conspiracy hatched against me."
Reliable sources say the campaign has been initiated by the family members of the other detained nuclear scientists of Khan Research Laboratories.
{{/usCountry}}Reliable sources say the campaign has been initiated by the family members of the other detained nuclear scientists of Khan Research Laboratories.
{{/usCountry}}These include Dr Mohammad Farooq, the laboratories' director, Dr Nazeer Ahmad, the chief engineer of its metallurgy department, Brigadier Sajawal Khan, one of the laboratories' former director-generals and Dr Naseemuddin, currently head of missile manufacturing.
The campaign is not limited to posters on taxis. Khan's aficionados have bribed a number of Islamic prayer leaders to vindicate and glorify him during Friday sermons among many of the thousands of mosques in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. '
According to one source, the price of a pro-Khan sermon is 3,000 rupees. Currently, Khan has bought the services of 1,500 prayer leaders.
"You can expect anything from Khan because he is such a 'publicity' hound that he would not refrain from employing any cheap tactic to make stories," says a student at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.