E-Paper
The Great Nuclear Theft
IN THE late Eighties, by boasting that Pakistan was in possession of a nuclear bomb, Professor Abdul Qadir Khan then head of Kahuta Research Laboratories of Pakistan had stunned the whole world. Considering the fact that then and even now Pakistan does not have the necessary scientific and industrial base for this type of an enterprise, the announcement was very startling. Within no time, AQ Khan acquired the status of an icon in Pakistan next only to its creator Jinnah.
IN THE late Eighties, by boasting that Pakistan was in possession of a nuclear bomb, Professor Abdul Qadir Khan then head of Kahuta Research Laboratories of Pakistan had stunned the whole world. Considering the fact that then and even now Pakistan does not have the necessary scientific and industrial base for this type of an enterprise, the announcement was very startling. Within no time, AQ Khan acquired the status of an icon in Pakistan next only to its creator Jinnah.
Today, however, this 71-year-old father of Pakistani nuclear bomb is not a happy man. After accusations by the US that Pakistan has proliferated nuclear technology to Iran, Libya, North Korea and now Syria, President Musharraf has promptly blamed Khan and he has been placed in a secluded confinement away from public eyes by the Pakistani Military where even his daughter cannot meet him. The rise and fall of this icon and acquisition of nuclear bomb by Pakistan is a unique story of theft and deceit.
Immediately after the ignominious defeat of Pakistani Army in the hands of Indian Army in 1971 Indo-Pak war, in which Pakistan was cut in half in size and its Eastern Wing emerged as an independent nation (Bangladesh), then Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had made the famous statement that Pakistan will produce an atomic bomb at all costs even if it has to eat grass.
At this time Professor AQ Khan a Mohajir of Indian origin who had migrated to Pakistan in 1952 from Bhopal, was working with a Dutch Uranium enrichment firm in Europe. This call of Mr. Bhutto appealed to him in a big way and Mr. Khan made contacts with Bhutto. Bhutto made available to him unlimited Government resources free of audit, clean blank cheques and total freedom in work. Khan promptly stole the top secret blue prints of latest centrifuge enrichment technology from the Dutch consortium and decamped to Pakistan.
Khan now got busy setting up his smuggling ring in the world black market. His plan was very simple. He outsourced all his orders of hardware to European firms.
The finished goods were then smuggled to Pakistan where he had set up the Khan Research Laboratories later renamed as Kahuta Research Laboratories.
(KRL). In Khan’s own words the European firms were falling head over heels to supply clandestine orders to Khan. As nothing was being made in Pakistan so the Pakistani nuclear programme was well-hidden from the prying eyes.
Having taken care of the enriched Uranium fuel now the next hurdle was the actual bomb making technology and the sophisticated gadgets that go with it.
So Khan approached China, the all-weather friend of Pakistan who was ever ready to prop Pakistan against India and was also keen to project itself as real friend of Islamic World through Pakistan. China at that time had exploded its nuclear device but it was very crude from the world standards point of view.
China was looking forward to sophisticated technology. Khan offered to China the services of his smuggling ring and the centrifuge Uranium enrichment technology which he had stolen from the Dutch, for return favor of nuclear bomb making technology and assistance in making the bomb.
China needed no cajoling and took the offer hook, line and the sinker. China not only provided to Pakistan the complete design of the nuclear bomb but also helped it in assembling the same. On request from Pakistan, China also made available to Pakistan the ring magnets without which the trigger mechanism of a nuclear bomb cannot function. China also gave Pakistan its M-9 and M-11 short-range India specific nuclear capable missiles as means to carry these bombs. By 1989 Pakistan had the nuclear bomb and the delivery means in terms of the Chinese missiles (Hatf series). Thus fortified Pakistan now embarked on the proxy war of terrorism with India in the state of J&K.
It is not incorrectly said that Pakistan is Governed by three A’s that are America, Army and Allah. In this entire decade of 1978 to 1988 during which Pakistan was involved in all these clandestine bomb making activities, it is not that US was not in know of what was Pakistan unto. However at this time Pakistan was the front line ally of America in its proxy war against Soviet Union in Afghanistan. US just could not afford to arm twist Pakistan on this bomb making issue as Pakistan controlled all the jehadi cards and knew it. America decided to look the other way.
Even though Pakistan calls its bomb an Islamic Bomb fact is that there is hardly anything Islamic about it. It is basically an International bomb made available to Pakistan by the profit greedy European firms and China. It was bank rolled in a big way by Libya, that also supplied to Pakistan raw Uranium. Reportedly Saudi Arabia had also lent a helping hand to Pakistan in monitory terms.
The Pakistani Army has controlled the Pakistani nuclear programme, right from its inception stage. A multi-layered security system headed by an officer of the rank of a Lt. General has been in vogue from the day one. The Pakistani Army keeps all nuclear installations and personnel under tight surveillance.
All these days were the heydays for Professor Khan. After Bhutto came General Zia who worshipped Khan. General Karamat and General Aslam Beg, both Army chiefs of Pakistan, looked at Khan very benevolently. During the time Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Khan ignored her and reported direct to then Pakistani President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. She was clueless about her countries nuclear status till CIA briefed her in Washington about it in 1989.Nawaz Sharif who followed Bhutto as Prime Minister of Pakistan has officially accepted that Khan-Army –ISI nexus was too strong and civilian leadership was kept out of it.
