"That day I was with Salam in his hotel in Islamabad and he had come all the way from Trieste. Salam was very disappointed when her personal assistant rang up to say the prime minister did not have the time."
Source/Credit: The Telegraph | UK
By Rob Crilly | August 1, 2012
Professor Abdus Salam was one of Pakistan's finest minds. His work in the field of theoretical physics, on unifying the electromagnetic and weak forces, earned him the country's first – and only – Nobel prize for physics in 1979. He died in 1996 but his name has resurfaced in recent weeks, a reminder of his work in characterising the then hypothetical Higgs boson in the 1960s.
In any other country his incredible achievements would be celebrated. In Pakistan, however, his memory is shunned. His gravestone has been altered so that he is no longer described as a Muslim and his house, bought by the government, stands unmaintained and forgotten.
Even in 1989, the world's first Muslim woman prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who herself knew prejudice, refused to meet him, recalls nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy.
"That day I was with Salam in his hotel in Islamabad and he had come all the way from Trieste. Salam was very disappointed when her personal assistant rang up to say the prime minister did not have the time," he told AFP.
The reason is that Professor Salam was a member of the minority Ahmadi sect, a group persecuted by successive governments and condemned as heretics by even mainstream Muslims. In 1974, Benazir Bhutto's father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, passed a law declaring Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. Later laws prevented Ahmadis from describing their places of worship as "mosques". The persecution continues. In June, police arrived at an Ahmadi mosque in the town of Kharian in Punjab province and tore down its minarets.
So this summer as scientists closed in on the Higgs boson and while India expressed pride in the role of Satyendra Nath Bose, a physicist who gave part of his name to the elusive particle, Pakistan failed to mark their man's contribution.
Now, compare Professor Salam's treatment with that of Engineer Waqar Ahmad, who claims to have solved the world's energy problems with a water-powered car. His miracle car has been trumpeted by newspapers and driven by one of the country's top TV talkshow hosts. And why not? Engineer Ahmad seems to have achieved the impossible. His process uses electrolysis to split water into its constituent parts – oxygen and hydrogen, which is then burned to produce the energy to drive the car. Brilliant stuff.
Just one problem. Numerous claims based on the principles have turned out to be bogus in the past. And there's no reason to think this will turn out to be different. Under perfect conditions, splitting water uses up the same energy as burning hydrogen (in oxygen to give water). In a car, the process will be far from 100 per cent efficient, so in fact some sort of external power source will be needed. The water cannot act as fuel. Anyone with even the vaguest understanding of physics or chemistry should understand that.
No matter. Pakistan's Minister of Religious Affairs, Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah, has driven the car and pledged government support. As Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reports:
He said Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh highly valued the project. “We own this project and are committed to successfully completing it,” he said.
Minister for Science and Technology Mir Changez Khan Jamali described the concept as a pioneering effort which could play a role in overcoming the energy crisis. He said the technology would be this year’s Independence Day gift to the nation.
A better gift would be to restore Professor Salam's reputation – and his home – in Pakistan.
Read original post here: Why Abdus Salam, Pakistan's great physicist, has been written out of history by his own country
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