After a prolonged period of placement under house arrest, for five years, Mr. Abdul Qadeer Khan who is considered to be one of the pioneers of Pakistan’s nuclear program, has been freed by virtue of an order of the Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court, Mr. Justice Sardar Akram. He is allowed to roam freely within the country but his movements outside are expected to be barred by the Government.
Dr. A. Q. Khan had acquired an international repute, for good and some controversial reasons subsequently, when Pakistan’s nuclear program got publicized. His international fame, in the Islamic world particularly, reached its high water mark when Pakistan successfully detonated six nuclear tests in response to India’s five in a quest to acquire a minimum deterrent level vis a vis India. Whether Pakistan’s security was enhanced as a result has been the subject of various debates but one thing which is clear is that Indian leader’s threatening mood after India conducted its own nuclear test subsided somewhat and the high spirits of the extremist Hindu leaders who had repeated their calls for assimilations of Pakistan into “greater-India” through force were subdued.
In Pakistan itself, Mr. A. Q. Khan’s stature and personality was acclaimed nationally and he was viewed as a national hero. Pakistanis knew that the country’s nuclear program had survived despite serious efforts by the U.S. to derail it and we were penalized through sanctions and rumours surfaced, about possible pre-emptive strike by Israel similar to “Operation Opera” during which a surprise Israel air strike had destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor, Osirak in 1981. According to U.S. intelligence services, in the three months leading up to the 1981 Israel air strike, at least three Iraqi nuclear scientists died under mysterious circumstances. What pressures, inducements and intimidations Pakistan and its nuclear scientists may have had to live up with during Pakistan’s nuclear program and its completion has not been known but it is clear that Israel and U.S. have never been comfortable with any Islamic country possessing nuclear weapons.
Dr. A.Q. Khan enjoyed deep respect in the Muslim world and remains one of the most iconic figures alive today who are models for Muslims all over the world. Muslims generally, lack scientific expertise and knowledge in comparison to their western counterparts and spend heavily on hard foreign currency to purchase expensive weapons systems as well as other technological devices. Being largely indigenous in nature, Pakistan’s nuclear program is therefore looked at by many western countries as an Islamic bomb although our nuclear and missile program is directed to match the ambitions of our biggest adversary, India, which threatens our eastern border and has acquiesced and encouraged the break up of Pakistan in 1971.
These are some of the various reasons which led to Dr. A.Q.Khans detention under U.S. pressure by former General Mushrraf who had merely received some briefings and some blueprints of centrifuges plants from the U.S. to establish his role in allegedly providing nuclear technology to Iran, N.Korea and Libya to succumb to their demand of playing Dr. Khan under house arrest. He was coerced into accepting sole responsibility for allegedly transferring nuclear technology to these countries and had been under detention since 2004. It is preposterous that the transfer of nuclear weapons system technology to Israel by the U.S. and the west remained unquestioned and is a topic which is sidelined by both the western media and the western governments, while the founder of nuclear Pakistan has to suffer miserably in his own home country.
The confession that Mr. Khan made, which he subsequently retracted from, is also seriously questionable since such transfer of technology is virtually impossible without the assistance of state apparatus and the armed forces and intelligence agencies of Pakistan, who have retained control over the nuclear program under a rigid and strict control system. One should be surprised if such alleged sole proliferation by Dr. A.Q. Khan went unnoticed by them and surely their role or the role of their agents, if such proliferation did indeed take place, was not investigated and even people who seriously believe that the proliferation did indeed take place have dismissed the idea that Dr.Khan could have done this on his own. Moreover, if our missile technology was acquired from N.Korea in partial exchange for our nuclear technology, it is implicit that strategic decision markers in Pakistan knew about it.
It is a good sign nevertheless that Dr.Khan has been released by a democratic government, which can be seen as a break from the authoritarian past of Pakistan where fundamental rights were under attack, Since now even a Swiss suspect, Mr. Urs Tinner, who was suspected of being part of the international network of Dr.Khan, was released by Swiss authorities last December after 4 years in prison without trial, to keep Dr. Khan under detention without only legal justification was undesirable. The incarceration of Mr.Tinner was described by his lawyer in a complaint with the European Courts of Human Rights as "worthy of Guantanamo". It is only natural that when the condemned Guantanamo prison itself is being closed by the new Democratic President of the United States, all governments worldwide denounce and restrain from the practice of captivity without trial. The Swiss and the Pakistani governments are no exceptions. What seems even more absurd and stupid in Pakistan is that one such man who was held under such captivity was no one but a national hero, not just for this country but Muslims all over the world.
It is a pity that as per Dr. A. Q. Khan it was only through the intervention of Mr. Rehman Malik, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior, that his release orders were announced. This speaks volumes about the defects inherent in our legal system.
India would try to potray Pakistan as a terrorist state with even grater vigour it has already reacted to the release by claiming that the scientist is a threat to world pea. Mrs. Hillary Clinton, the new secretary of state of U.S. has indicated U.S’s reservations over the release and the British Foreign Office has reiterated the demand to allow IAEA to question him. We must seek new diplomatic overtures to prevent our isolation in this matter. Consensus building between friendly countries over the issue is necessary. Dr. A. Q. Khan must also refrain in the national interest from speaking about the details of the proliferation or technology exchange in future.
The absence of reaction of Muslim leaders to the detention by Pakistani government in the past speaks volumes about the western influence that encapsulates their autocratic and corrupt leadership. Dr. A.Q. Khan, although much older now, suffering from cancer and bearing strains of captivity can perhaps still work to provide the Muslim Ummah what is needed the most-unity and a sense of brotherhood which revives the days of reign of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto when he was the Prime Minister. In those days for the first time in modern history, when a Muslim soul suffered, the whole Muslim world cried in pain. Perhaps such days would come again, hopefully in the writer’s life.
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