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| Dr. Abdus Salam received Nobel Prize while dressed in his Pakistani native outfit |
Source/Credit: Daily Times | Pakistan
By Munir Khan | August 24, 2011
In 2005, the front cover of Time magazine displayed a photograph of Dr A Q Khan under the heading ‘Merchant of Menace’. At the time, Khan was under house arrest following a dramatic televised mea culpa, which sent shockwaves around the world. Khan confessed to having been responsible for the worst act of nuclear proliferation that the world had yet witnessed. Khan admitted to betraying the nation’s trust and selling nuclear secrets to North Korea, Libya and Iran amongst others. The then military government of Pervez Musharraf, to much scepticism was content to portray Khan as a solitary rogue scientist, and exonerated the military of any involvement or knowledge of the ‘Khan network’ as it later became known.
The recent revelations in the Washington Post alleging that the North Koreans had paid Khan large sums of money and “jewellery” to be paid to at least two Pakistani general’s, confirmed the worst fears of most Pakistani’s. For a highly suspicious western audience already baying for blood following the discovery of Osama bin Laden living in a military garrison city some 20 miles from the nation’s capital, this was further evidence of double dealing and perfidy, to add to the growing list of Pakistani transgressions.
Investigations continue internationally at the scale and depth of the proliferation alleged to have been carried out by the Khan network. No doubt, another investigation continues within the Pakistan military to establish how high up the chain of command the corruption and pay offs permeated and who knew what and when.
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| Time's cover about Dr. A.Q Khan |
Dr Abdus Salam was a theoretical physicist and is still Pakistan’s only Nobel Laureate. An outstanding and gifted student who dazzled his teachers and peers, Salam quickly rose the ranks of academic excellence. He won a scholarship to Cambridge University in 1949 and excelled by gaining a double first and winning the prestigious Smith’s prize in Physics. The renowned scientist Sir Fred Hoyle advised Salam to stay on and continue his work at Cambridge. Salam, proud of his Pakistani/Muslim heritage and with a zeal to serve the nation, demurred and opted to return to Pakistan and take up an academic post at Government College, Lahore.
Those who knew Salam recall a Pakistani patriot who was both a scientific genius and a person who rejoiced in his Muslim cultural heritage. In his daily life, he displayed the joie de vivre of a renaissance Sufi poet who relished in reciting Urdu/Persian (Rumi) and English poetry, and regularly referred to the Quran as a source of inspiration in his study of physics and science. Whilst Salam himself rejoiced in his Muslim roots, he faced one major difficulty: a section of Islamist opinion regarded him as a heretic because he belonged to the heterodox Ahmedi sect within Islam.
In 1953, fate intervened and Salam’s sojourn in Pakistan was interrupted as communal rioting against the Ahmedis burst out in Lahore and martial law was declared in Punjab. Salam, unable to set up a research institute in Pakistan due to opposition from some of his peers, left the country and returned to Cambridge. Salam’s stellar scientific career continued and, over the next few years, his international fame as a physicist grew. By 1960, the Pakistani government had faced down the Islamists who opposed Salam and had appointed him scientific advisor to the government. Salam was instrumental in setting up Pakistan’s nascent nuclear energy programme.
Pakistan’s nuclear programme took on critical importance in 1972 as Pakistan became aware of the advanced stage of India’s secret nuclear weapons programme. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the prime minister, appointed Salam to head a team of scientists to develop a nuclear deterrence to the emerging Indian nuclear threat. Salam would have remained at the head of that programme and overseen the entire project had fate once again not intervened.
The charismatic Bhutto had, for some time, been touting himself as the leader of the Muslim world. The attendance of all the heads of the Islamic world in Lahore, Pakistan at the 1974 Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was Bhutto’s crowning glory. To further endear himself to Islamists, Bhutto bowed to the demands of the Islamofascist Jamaat-e-Islami in their demand for Ahmedis to be declared a non-Muslim minority. In 1974, the National Assembly of Pakistan controversially declared Ahmedis non-Muslim, and amended the constitution of Pakistan accordingly. For Ahmedis in general, and Salam in particular, this was a grave injustice and a watershed moment. Salam felt his position untenable and resigned from his government post.
Whilst the 1974 amendment in Pakistan’s constitution was without doubt a turning point in Salam’s life, the events of 1974 had a far more cataclysmic effect on the future course of Pakistan. For the first time in Pakistan’s nascent history, the Islamists had scented blood and, having made the government bow to its demands, were at last, in the ascendancy.
(To be continued)
The writer is a lawyer working in the Middle East. He writes on regional affairs and can be reached at munirkhan74@rocketmail.com
Read original post here: COMMENT: Parallel lives — I —Munir Khan
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