I am watching television right now and every news channel is reporting the latest interview by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. This interview came as a surprise to many people here in Pakistan and is sending shock waves around the world (wait and see after 4th July holiday in US).
Dr. Khan, who remains popular across Pakistan has lived in the shadows since 2004, confined to his Islamabad home. People of Pakistan last saw him in a tearful televised confession in which he admitted selling nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. President Musharraf has been telling Pakistanis since 2004 that Dr. Khan did it for money and personal greed. In his interview on May 30 2008, given to British newspaper Guardian, Dr. Khan claimed that he took the blame on himself in the national interest. Dr. Khan has been in the news for last few weeks because of his detention case in the Islamabad High Court but today he returned to the spotlight with a new twist: that North Korea received centrifuges from Pakistan in a 2000 shipment supervised by the security forces during the rule of President Pervez Musharraf.
According to Dr. Khan, the uranium enrichment equipment was sent from Pakistan in a North Korean plane that was loaded under the supervision of Pakistani security officials. He claims that the security forces had “complete knowledge” of the shipment and that it must have been sent with the consent of President Pervez Musharraf. Dr. Khan also disclosed that North Korea gave 200 missiles to Pakistan during Kargil War on his request without any payment. However, the government sources have completely rejected the statement, saying such reports are part of propaganda against Pakistan’s nuclear program.
Dr. Khan has often insisted in recent past too that if anything at all was smuggled to North Korea, Iran or Libya, it was in complete knowledge of Pakistan Army, particularly the ISI Chief Gen. Mahmood Ali Durrani (later the Pak Ambassador to US and currently national security adviser) and other officials in-charge of logistics etc. as it was not possible for him to do something like that alone. The centrifuges are large cylinders which cannot be just transported in a brief case. They need special care for transportation. American officials have even given the flight numbers which allegedly transported the nuclear material.
Talking to media Dr. Khan said that he didn’t say anything new and he just explained what Gen. Musharraf has already disclosed in his book, In The Line of Fire. According to Geo TV:
Renowned nuclear scientist, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan has said that President Pervez Musharraf had already published in his book about the dispatching of centrifuges to North Korea and that his (Dr. Qadeer’s) statement was carried by the foreign news agency in a distorted manner. Talking to Geo News, Dr. A. Q. Khan said when he was asked by a foreign news agency whether the centrifuges were sent to N. Korea he replied that this had already been published in the President’s book. Dr. Khan said any question regarding the dispatch of centrifuges be put to President Pervez Musharraf. “Nothing could be sent without the supervision of the security forces,†he said. He expressed hope that his detention will end soon.
I don’t know how much damage this latest interview will cause to already under-threat nuclear program of Pakistan. But I believe that the way Gen. Musharraf and his regime has treated Dr. Khan since 2004, something like that was bound to happen. No matter whether Dr. Khan is a national hero as majority of Pakistanis still believe he is or a thief as some claim, we must not forget that he is a human being after all.
Allegedly, he was not even allowed to walk out of his home and meet anyone at all since 2004. His elder daughter Dina Khan was not allowed to meet him for one year. Just last week, the Deputy Attorney General claimed in Islamabad High Court and in front of media that Dr. Khan is absolutely free to meet anyone and no restrictions are placed on him. The same evening, many local TV channels showed live how Dr. Sahab was stopped by security officials to go to a dental clinic when he was suffering form severe pain his teeth. The officials ignored him for more than 24 hours until he came out, sat in the middle of road and refused to go back inside. Only then the permission was granted to take him to a dental clinic and the whole drama was shown live on a local channel Express News.
I believe that the authorities should immediately talk to Dr. Khan, lift restrictions on him so that everything could be settled. Sensitive matters like this should never come on media like that and we should close this matter ASAP. I think its a very dangerous trend that we make people believe in something for decades and then suddenly expect them to believe otherwise. Lets hope wisdom prevails before its too late.
Reference: Yahoo News Story on the topic here.
It seems that our current politicians or rulers want to defame army to strangle their hold tight on the power. Last week Zardari blamed West for favoring Pakistani army instead of Pakistani people which resulted in this militarization and talibanisation of the whole region. They are trying to repeat the trick of army rulers who always defamed politicians in the past to usurp the whole power in the country. Politicians are trying to be smart but using Dr. Qadeer can be quite troublesome. This is not the way to go about it. Actually it is all power after which they are running like mad dogs whether it is army rulers or politicians. I see no difference in army dictatorship and political tyranny. They all seek absolute power regardless of what it can do to the country. Unfortunately, Dr Saheb has been exploited this time around. May Allah save Pakistan!
Any Pakistani government who is in power should lock AQ Khan up. The Israeli government has one of its citizen locked up for over a decade for talking about Israeli nuclear program.
The other issue is the oppurtunities Pakistan lost in developing and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Since 1979, South Korea has become a leader in generating nuclear power by building 16 nuclear power plants with the help of the USA, Canada, and France. However after building a single 150 MW CANDU plant in Karachi, everything stopped becuase of the AQ Khans initiative until the now inferior technolgy being used at Chasma recently. It stopped hundreds of Pakistani engineers trained in nuclear power plant design and construction to help their country. We would not have the load shedding and loss of economic power associated with it now if the peaceful use of the atomic energy was selected.
At the end of the day it is economic power which makes nations strong and not the military power. I know people will talk of India and Kargil in defense of having a bomb. However, these events were self created by our leaders.
So he finally cracked. He was put on much higher pedestal than he deserved – a front man for the covert program.
Under the current circumstances he could have served his country by enduring the pressure rather than cracking up.
Like many other situations once again Pakistan has become a ring for settling personal scores – Is he any different from our illustrious CJ, Zardari, Nawaz, and Musharaf…?
@hammad;
nuclear technology is being smuggled under the watchful eyes of the world superpowers and isreal..even our came thru tht door..every1 knows tht..its not news to ne 1 ..yes its bad..but even we stole it..trust me we didn’t come up with it..
some god damn national hero Mr. AQ khan turned out to be! “took the blame for national interest”..yea right!and now opened my tongue abt it for some personal interests!(like a fat cheque from we know where and who!)the bastard serves his personal interests only..guess we had it comin thnx to our very very stupid media..and even more stupid government..4 years this guy didn’t say a word n today all of sudden he claims to have been the scapegoat..there is no conspiracy goin on here against PPP, its jes plain n simple..AQ khan is givin pretext for military action agaisnt pakistan ..and we can thank the gunja brothers (technically they aren’t gunja ne more).. and of course every1’s homi Mr colgate dental shine n smile n fool em all..