Is Dr. A Q Khan a thief?

June 16th, 2008 Aimon · No Comments

Guest Post by Zubair Ahmed

After reading Mr. Shakir Husain’s “Our Heroes” published in The News on 11th June 2008, I immediately dismissed one of my own hypotheses that said: ‘only’ senior military officers, given a chance to speak on high technology; reveal an uncanny ability to churn out opinionated nonsense.

Mr. Shakir fears “Essentially by recognizing Dr Khan as a hero, we want our children to emulate a thief”.

He goes repeatedly shooting at Dr. Khan with his caustic hollow points “stealing”, “smuggling ring”, “master of logistics (read smuggling)”, and eventually “thief”. I won’t replay a bigoted slandering tone in the following lines and will reserve my personal opinions on Mr. Shakir’s hero recipe; instead I shall put forward some facts and questions in an effort to remove the selective ignorance about, and grudges against Dr. A Q Khan, that people like Mr. Shakir so dogmatically carry.

“Dr Khan is not a scientist, rather an engineer – a fact he has never clarified anywhere.”

Firstly, it should not bother us whether he is scientist or an engineer or an auto mechanic. What matters is his contribution to the world of science and technology and the substance of his service to the Pakistani nation. The Encarta English dictionary 2008 defines the term “scientist” as follows:

Expert in science: somebody who has scientific training or works in one of the sciences, example: a forensic scientist

We (and the whole world) call Dr. A Q Khan a scientist (as well as a metallurgical engineer) because of his research in the areas of metallurgy, materials Science and nuclear engineering, his publishing more than 188 scientific research papers in top international journals, his contribution in developing missile technologies at KRL, his holding of two patents (registered with UK) and above all his building a uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta. May be I have missed some of his important contributions here.

“Dr Khan has had a remarkable career which began with him stealing blueprints of a nuclear facility where he worked and smuggling them to Pakistan”

His career did not begin to be remarkable on his so-called stealing of blue prints; rather he had a remarkable career right from the start. Soon after completing his formal education he was appointed as one of the senior most scientists at Physical Dynamics Research Laboratory (FDO) in Amsterdam (a subcontractor to Ultra-Centrifuge Nederland UCN, located in Almelo), where he worked on centrifuge designs.

Did he steal nuclear blue prints from Netherlands? Or should we say the experience he gained at FDO/URENCO helped him while building, equipping and operating KRL? Even the Amsterdam court set aside verdict against him in 1985 at an appeal on a legal technicality. Do we have a proof that Dr. A Q Khan is wrong in saying that “All the research work [at Kahuta] was the result of our innovation and struggle”? And in any event, does the term ’stealing’ and ‘thief’ apply to a war of national interests, where one nation’s hero is another’s villain and where one nation’s trickery is another nation’s strategy? Please talk to an Indian on Kashmir issue.

“Dr Khan is not a scientist and he never invented anything”

Dr. Khan has got two inventions to his credit, protected by patents registered with the UK (U.K. Patents No. GB 2275437, Nov. 1995 and U.K. Patents No. GB 2285633, 1997)

“All he (Dr. Khan) did was smuggle components from stolen blueprints and put together a team of scientists who could reverse-engineer already developed processes and systems. Intelligent, definitely, but not the stuff that heroes are made of.”

Isn’t it heroic that Dr. Khan, in a country that does not even build motor bike engines, successfully built a uranium enrichment plant? If all it takes was smuggling and putting together a team of scientists to reverse engineer, why so few countries in the world are nuclear capable?

“The Dr Khans of Pakistan should not be honoured as heroes; rather, the Dr Abdus Salams of our country should be honoured and raised on a pedestal.”

Heroism is about reaching excellence in sciences and arts or any other dimension of human endeavor. Heroism is also about the substance and significance of a man’s service to his nation. It is shameless to make one great man taller by deriding and cutting down another great man.