Rohail A. Khan JEDDAH — Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan is a world-renowned nuclear scientist and metallurgical engineer, widely acclaimed as “Founder and Father of Pakistan's Nuclear Deterrence Program.” April 1 being his 77th birthday, let us pay tribute to this living legend during his life time. Khan was born in an urban Muslim family of literary and religious scholars on April 1, 1936 in Bhopal, India. His father, a school teacher, was a social worker and an active member of the All India Muslim League. A child prodigy, Khan was outstanding in both studies and sports. His mother once took him to a fortune teller who proudly predicted: “this child is going to accomplish very important and useful work for his nation and will earn international fame and respect”. The 1947 partition of sub-continent into two independent countries India (Hindu majority) and Pakistan (Muslim majority) brought socio-economic and demographic upheaval into the lives of millions that also adversely affected young Khan. His family diligently migrated to the newly founded Pakistan but he stayed back to complete his school studies. In early 1952, 16-year-old Khan traveled to Pakistan to join his parents and siblings. The railway trip proved full of trials and tribulations, during which he and his companions suffered physical torture at the hands of Indian railroad police. Ultimately, the determined Khan walked barefoot across a five-mile scorching stretch of desert, carrying only schoolbooks and a few clothes, to successfully reach his destination — Pakistan. Upon migrating to Karachi, he joined the famous D.J Science College and continued to excel as a genius student. There, he took his double B.Sc degree in Physics and Mathematics under the supervision of famous physicist Dr. Bashir Syed. In 1956, he joined Karachi University and obtained a second B.Sc degree in Metallurgy in 1960. The God-gifted engineer was awarded internship at Siemens Engineering, Germany. He went on to pursue his masters degree in metallurgical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. Later, he moved to The Hague, Netherlands, along with an industrious Dutch woman Miss Henny who soon became his wife. In Netherlands, Khan attended the Delft Technological University for four years, learning to speak both Dutch and German so well that he was frequently commissioned to translate scientific documents from one language to the other. A man with illustrious linguistic capabilities, he was fluent in English, Urdu, Dutch, German, and also spoke French and Persian. Khan and his scholarly wife both later joined the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, where he pursued advanced research and earned a Ph.D in metallurgical engineering. He wrote and published research papers, made friends easily, and enjoyed an affluent life in Europe as a well-paid scientist. In 1972, he was head-hunted by a leading Dutch consulting firm called FDO that specialized in the design of centrifuges — giant spinning drums used for a variety of industrial processes including enrichment of uranium for nuclear weapons. It was at this point of life that the young professor, research scientist, and doctor's career began to intersect with the unfolding of world events. In 1971, East Pakistan's Bengali nationalists launched a war for separation. At first the rebellion was crushed, but after India entered the war to support East Pakistan's rebels, the newly independent nation of Bangladesh was formed. Pakistanis, who were earlier forced to engage in several wars with India over the disputed Kashmir region, suffered national humiliation and the loss of East Pakistan and its population. When Pakistani leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto learned that India had launched a clandestine nuclear weapons program, he formed one of his own, vowing at one point that Pakistanis would “eat grass” - make any conceivable sacrifice - in order to obtain the nuclear weapons that would, protect Pakistan from Indian domination. In 1974, despite general despise of the international community, India detonated an underground nuclear explosion and emerged as a “Nuclear Power” possessing mass destruction capacity. This nuclear test called “Smiling Buddha,” alarmed the Government of Pakistan and the Pakistani nation. This test was widely sensed as a strong initiative by India to cause Pakistan's annihilation. At this juncture, the patriotic Khan contacted Bhutto and offered his expertise to build a nuclear bomb based on enriched uranium. This was a better plan, than the plutonium-based technology Pakistan had been pursuing with assistance from Canada at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Karachi. Khan's company, FDO, provided consulting services to a Dutch-German uranium enrichment facility called URENCO that supplied fuel for peaceful nuclear energy uses (although the double edge of nuclear energy technology is its' applicability to weaponry). He realized that the company's centrifuge designs could be used to enrich uranium to bomb-level concentrations, and with security clearance from the Dutch Government, he accumulated the “technology transfer expertise.” In 1976, with full command over the most sophisticated uranium-enrichment technology known to the Western world, Khan returned to Pakistan and assumed leadership of Pakistan's nuclear research and development program. This program was originally launched in 1974 by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) as Project-706. In July 1976, Khan took over the project from PAEC and moved the facility from Karachi to Kahota, North Pakistan. Subsequently, after state-supported renovation initiated by the then President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, it was re-named as: Khan Research Laboratories (KRL). Precision parts were imported from international suppliers. Uranium was procured from the Pakistani mines. Thus, Khan Research Laboratories made steady progress with enrichment to the high concentrations necessary for a nuclear bomb. Khan claimed the lab was doing only work relevant to the peaceful uses of nuclear technology, but engineers at KRL worked on rocketry and inter-continental weapons delivery systems. Western-led international media made consistent propaganda against Pakistan's efforts to develop nuclear capability. Various legal proceedings launched against Khan in the Netherlands came to nothing. Collective efforts by Dutch and US intelligence agencies also failed to identify any concrete evidence on the works of Khan. “We knew a lot,” a senior nuclear intelligence official told William Broad and David Sanger of the New York Times , but we didn't realize the size of his universe.” From 1976 till 1998, the nuclear development research at KRL largely remained a well-kept secret. India during this period continued making various nuclear tests and under-sea nuke explosions, ignoring the international diplomatic pressures. In response and protest to a major nuclear test by India in 1998, Pakistan formally conducted an equivalent nuclear test for the “first time” and showed the world she possessed the strength to utilize nuclear technology as a deterrent. Today, Khan enjoys a legendary status across the World in general and specifically in Pakistan. “Every school child recognizes his face,” a Western diplomat in Pakistan told Edward Luce of the Financial Times in 2004. The international media has left no stone unturned to fabricate “proliferation controversies” against Dr. A.Q. Khan. He refutes it as coercive, unilateral propaganda against him and the Islamic world. As a scientist, he is well-known to openly resent the Western monopoly on nuclear technology and weaponry. “Most Western countries,” he was quoted as saying by Sanger and Broad in the New York Times “are not only the enemies of Pakistan but in fact of Islam.” Suffering from prostate cancer, the simple-living nuclear scientist, although 77 years of age, continues to work fervently toward his cause. He has been honored with highest awards, degrees and titles notably: Mohsin-e-Pakistan, FPAS, D.Eng, D.Sc, Hilal-e-Imtiaz, and Nishan-e-Imtiaz. Further to his research and development in nuclear science, Khan has made rich contributions in morphology and material physics. — SG
