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The Father of the Bomb and the Urdu Press
EFLMr Abdul Qadeer Khan is supposed to have given Pakistan its nuclear device and transformed it in more ways than one. Pakistanâs defence and security policy was jerked into new gear with his 1986 âleakâ about Pakistanâs nuclear capability. It also kicked off a gradual change in Pakistanâs nationalism. The Pakistani man began to think more aggressively about India. The warrior state suddenly found the prospect of conquest a realistic possibility. Jihad was made possible by the bomb, which caused the religious parties to regard Dr Khan as a key person in their scheme of things. The people felt secure and began endorsing increased adventurism in policy. This brought the military leadership centre-stage. Civilian governments began to come under pressure from military leaders willing to take risks. The Urdu press, which scrutinises the state of the nation as opposed to the English press â which scrutinises the functioning of the state â fixed on Dr Qadeer Khan as their mascot. Below is a sampling of Urdu press opinion about him. Hair-trigger Dr Qadeer Khan A Jang columnist narrated how he found Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of our bomb and Ghauri missile, when he visited him last. He described him as a descendant of a general of Muhammad Shahabuddin Ghauri, the Turk commander from Afghanistan who defeated the ruler of Ajmer and Delhi, Prithvi Raj, in 1196. Dr Qadeer had âfoundâ the tomb of Ghauri in Suhawa, near his Kahuta stronghold, and reconstructed it. The Ghauri missile (earlier Hatf-5 meaning âdeathâ) is supposed to kill Indiaâs Prithvi missile. A friend of Dr Qadeer Khan told the columnist that Dr Sahib was wont to lose his senses when talking of Hindus and might launch the weapon on India in a fit of rage. Many of Pakistanâs Islamists see themselves as the natural descendents of the Turkish and Mughal invaders who conquered India before the British came. Although most Pakistanis are the descendents of Hindu or Buddhist converts to Islam, many of the leaders like to think of themselves as related to foreign Islamic conquerers. Dr Qadeer Khan dying to come into politics Khabrain reported Jamaat Islamiâs leader Liaquat Baloch as saying that the father of Pakistanâs atom bomb Dr Qadeer Khan was dying to come into politics and is begging prime minister Nawaz Sharif to allow him to do so. Some of these quotes must be pretty old, as Nawaz Sharif was deposed years ago. Dhaka surrender fired me! Daily Pakistan quoted the father of Pakistanâs atom bomb Dr Qadeer Khan as saying that he had decided to make the bomb on the day Pakistan army surrendered at Dhaka. He was then working in Holland where he saw the ceremony of surrender on Indian TV. He resolved to take revenge there and then.
According to daily Din, the father of Pakistanâs atom bomb, Dr Qadeer Khan said that switching the weekly off-day from Friday to Sunday had brought no flood of dollars, nor had the economy improved. He said he had requested the former government to restore Friday as weekly holiday but it was too surrounded by dubious advisers to listen. Nuclear scientists should go to Afghanistan! Quoted in Ausaf, leader of JUI Balochistan Hafiz Husain Ahmad said that all retired scientists should proceed to Afghanistan to help the country advance technologically. He asked Dr Qadeer Khan and Dr Ashfaq, both retired recently from their nuclear jobs in Pakistan, to transfer their services to Mulla Omar. He also said that America was offended with Buddha-bashing not because it cared for culture but because it was envious of Mulla Omar getting all the diamonds discovered inside the statues destroyed by him. Dr Qadeer Khan spends big in Timbuktoo Famous columnist Abdul Qadir Hasan writing in Jang said that once Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan took a group of friends to Africa and once there demonstrated the most astounding generosity with his money by giving gifts to local people. The broken-sandalled guide who was given the best shoes available in Africa broke down and cried most copiously at the gesture of Pakistanâs father of the nuclear bomb. He also bought the entire lot of fried fish from a vendor and gave them to a poor woman sitting alongside with a bevy of hungry children, who also broke down and wept copiously at the generosity of the father of the nuclear bomb. In one museum in Africa the local African king was shown sitting on a throne while white Europeans sat like minions at his feet. The great Dr Qadeer Khan was greatly inspired by this piece of art and said: soon it will be like this, meaning that the people of Africa will rule over the Europeans and humiliate them. I doubt he had the people of Africa in mind as the ruler of the Euros. Dr Qadeer Khan owns no land! Quoted in Jang, Pakistanâs father of the bomb, Dr Qadeer Khan said that he had said goodbye to a handsomely paying job in Holland to come to Pakistan. His Dutch wife had given up her Dutch nationality for the sake of Pakistan. He said when he came to Pakistan he was employed at the salary of Rs 3000 with no other perks but he accepted that and abstained from acquiring any land to improve his financial position. Posted by: Paul Moloney 2004-02-13 |
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