Dr AQ Khan laid to rest amid tears, prayers

PM Khan says Dr Khan was loved for making Pakistan a nuclear capable state

ISLAMABAD: Abdul Qadeer Khan, lionised as the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, passed away at his home in Islamabad Sunday morning. He was 85.

Khan was buried in the H-8 graveyard in Islamabad amid tears and prayers after a state funeral inside the Faisal Mosque compound held at 3:30 pm and attended by members of the federal cabinet and top military officers.

He was admitted to a local hospital where his health deteriorated early morning. Pakistan Television said he died after being transferred to a hospital with lung problems.

Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed said the state funeral was given under the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He confirmed the prime minister had also directed the cabinet to attend the funeral.

Khan was admitted to Khan Research Laboratories Hospital on August 26 after he tested positive for coronavirus. He was later shifted to a military hospital in Rawalpindi.

A September 13 report quoting people close to the nuclear scientist said his health was “now improving and he is likely to be shifted to his home soon”.

“[I] am better today than yesterday,” Khan said in a message to Arab News the following day. “May God be with you and protect you.”

FATHER OF NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

Khan was born in 1936 in Bhopal city of British India and immigrated along with his family to Pakistan in 1947 after the partition of the sub-continent.

He did a science degree at Karachi University in 1960, then went on to study metallurgical engineering in Berlin before completing advanced studies in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The crucial contribution to the nuclear programme was the procurement of a blueprint for uranium centrifuges, which transform uranium into weapons-grade fuel for nuclear fissile material.

He secured it from the Netherlands while working for Anglo-Dutch-German nuclear engineering consortium Urenco and bringing it back to Pakistan in 1976.

On his return to Pakistan, then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto put Khan in charge of the government’s nascent uranium enrichment project. Bhutto famously said: “We will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will have our own [nuclear bomb].”

By 1978, his team had enriched uranium and by 1984 they were ready to detonate a nuclear device, Khan later said in a newspaper interview.

The 1998 nuclear tests saw Pakistan slapped with international sanctions and sent its economy into freefall.

He led Pakistan’s nuclear program for some 25 years and was considered a national hero.

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION

In 2004, Khan found himself at the centre of the world’s biggest nuclear proliferation scandal when he confessed to — reportedly under pressure — selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

He was pardoned but placed under house arrest in 2004 by then-president Pervez Musharraf. The government relaxed restrictions on him in 2009 but his movements were limited.

The authorities denied any connection to Khan’s purported smuggling ring but never let foreigners question him.

There is a widespread belief in Pakistan that Khan was the victim of an international conspiracy against Islamabad’s nuclear programme.

Many hailed Khan as the man who enabled Pakistan to respond to India’s nuclear detonations with its own tests in 1998.

POLITICS

In 2012, Khan announced to try his hand at politics to rescue a country he declared had “become worse than a banana republic”.

Khan’s movement, Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Pakistan, or Movement For Protection of Pakistan, urged the youth to be heard through national elections and break the stranglehold of traditional political dynasties.

“The youth is 47 percent of this country’s population, they can bring the change,” said Khan at the time.

CONDOLENCES POUR IN

Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was saddened by the scientist’s passing. He praised Khan for being a national icon and for providing Pakistan with security against an “aggressive much larger nuclear neighbour.”

Prime Minister Khan said Khan’s body would be buried in Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

President Arif Alvi offered his condolences, saying he knew Khan personally since 1982. He added that Khan developed “nation-saving nuclear deterrence” and Pakistan would forever be indebted to him for that.

A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations said Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman Gen Nadeem Raza and all services chiefs expressed sorrow over Khan’s passing.

The statement also quoted Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa as saying that he had rendered invaluable services to strengthen Pakistan’s defence capabilities.

Fellow scientist Dr. Samar Mubarakmand said Khan was a national treasure who defied Western attempts to stifle Pakistan’s nuclear program.

“It was unthinkable for the west that Pakistan would make any breakthrough but finally they had to acknowledge Dr. Khan’s achievement of making the country’s nuclear weapons,” he said.

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