Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, Father of Pakistan’s so-called "Islamic Bomb", has admitted to the "guilt in good faith" of supplying nuclear (centrifuge) technology to Iran allegedly without the knowledge of various governments and the Pakistan Army (watchdog and partner of the whole programme since its inception) while heading the Khan Research Laboratory (KRL) for a long period of twenty years. In a nation-wide TV appearance he admitted to the charge and sought nation’s for forgiveness of his ‘deviation’ and then was mercifully ‘pardoned’ by the President on the recommendations of the Cabinet. The whole saga began with a written complaint from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the government charging our top nuclear scientists, headed by Dr. Qadeer, of proliferation which resulted in so-called "debriefing" of accused lot by our ‘experts of profession’ and as a result the removal and disgrace of Dr. Khan with publicly expressed intentions to extract more from him about the international nuclear black market of which he is suspected to be prime leader! It is a strange coincidence that the real Father of the Atomic Bomb, Dr. J Robert Openheimmer of USA, too was charged with selling the secrets to the former USSR in 1953 that is eight years after his invention pulverised Hiroshima and Nagasaki forcing Japan to seek surrender on its knees. History tells us that Dr.Teller, the Father of Hydrogen Bomb and a bosom friend and contemporary of Dr. Openheimmer, testified against him in the Congressional Enquiry that resulted in his removal from official positions and a bar to any access to top secret public undertakings. Nevertheless, he was never exposed to any sorts of allegations in print or electronic media by any one and was retired with all dignity and full honors that is the due of any hero from an obliged nation

What is the charge against Dr. Khan ? He is accused of having supplied, in return for millions of dollar, the drawings and other technical data about the centrifuges required to enrich the naturally occurring uranium ore (U-238) to the weapon-grade purity of over 90 percent (U-235). This is accomplished through the centrifuge technology which Dr. Khan, and his wife, are said to have ‘stolen’ from Urenco, the Dutch Nuclear Institution where both of them worked before being hijacked by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, then Prime Minister, and given the carte blanche to produce the ‘bomb’ even if that meant ‘eating grass’. Now U-235 is the explosive "core" and is central to the nuclear device but the fact remains that the centrifugal process for its production, nor the centrigure, are any secrets and details for these are available in open market even as commercial products. One of the most widely used type of explosives, the nitro celloluse powder (NCP) employed as a "propellent" in cartridges of guns and some rockets, in its first production phase, the nitration, employs the centrifuge technology to "purify" cotton (linter) from impurities to a desired level that is exactly similar to "purifying" U-238 to U-235 . The principle, in simplest terms, in that when you rotate any thing about a centre and then let it go, the rotation produces a force called centrifugal force that takes it away from the centre of rotation and that lighter the body the farther will it travel compared to a heavier body. We have all seen in the old movies rustic "heroines" using the "gopia" to shy away birds and invariably hitting a "gabroo" igniting not a nuclear but a romantic "explosion". The late, our one and only Noorjehan did perform such an act in the movie "Gaon ki gori" in 1943 and unleashed a storm, not atomic, but of nostalgia in film fans that earned her the title of "Bulbul-e-Hind". So what is ‘secret’ about a centrifuge or its principles or its details of manufacture and above all its availability in open international market. How has Dr. Khan sold any State secrets when principles, drawings and products of such ‘secrets’ are available on open international market? And can he do it all alone with the Presidents and Army Chiefs of the time privy to every development and Army Intelligence standing guard in multilayers on all data and development .

The crucial point is that Pakistan is not a signatory to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and it is not obliged to abide by any of its terms. It went overtly nuclear in 1998 inviting the so-called "sanctions . However, it refused to "investigate" any charges against its nuclear scientists either of corruption or of proliferation or both and the IAEA had no guts to write a letter that they have recently done because they knew it will be spurned. The question is not that of the scientists but that of sovereignty of an independent state not tied to any obligatory International agreement like NPT or even Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the CTBT. All the accused scientists are legitimate citizens of Pakistan and they may have sinned as charged but does it behove any proud people, that we claim to be, to bring its dirty linen, if really it is compared to the deeds particularly of USA which is the first rate criminal of the first and only use of atomic bomb over Japan while the negotiations of unconditional surrender by Japan were well advanced. And now that we have fulfilled the wishes of the superpower and promised to do more, where will the buck stop? There are strident cries of not allowing this or that and the brow-beating of its own journalists and writers in promptu bravado ; but the signals from American press are loud and clear!

The leadership of this God-gifted country has an unfortunate history of dancing to dollars and of showing clay feet despite its machismo. There are analysts galore cautioning against the anger of President Bush, the worst of American machos, in case we donot conform to his non-proliferation agenda. The examples of Afghanistan and Iraq are given and in a most degrading manner the submission to IAEA demands by the brother countries of Iran and Libya is quoted at the highest level ignoring not only that they are signatory to NPT but most ungratefully forgetting the unstinted political, moral and material help they provided us in our gravest hour of national peril. Even if we proliferated any nuclear secrets what is wrong about it? The beggars cannot be choosers and that is why we cannot ask them why they ignore Israel as an open nuclear monster! The apologists tremble with fear of the super power but it is only the brave who live with honour and not in the quest of dollar . Taliban were brave only against their fellow countrymen who did not subscribe to their religious beliefs and its dogmatic self-aggrandising interpretation by them and that is why Allah Almighty made a horrible example of them by not saving them due to the sin of slurring the fair name of His religion . They got pulverised even in the caves of Tora-Bora to which they ran like rats. Now look at Iraq. The tin-pot dictator Saddam had no peer in killing his own brothers in faith even using chemical weapons on them with a nod from the Satan and yet the coward had to be dug out of a hole like an ant by the same Satan to be tried for his crimes. Such is the destiny of cowards living on foreign blessings. There is insistent demand for understanding requirements of "national interest" and separating "government" from "state" for any criticism. Who is criticising "state" that means Pakistan by any meaning of the term? No one not even those who opposed creation of Pakistan. Any "government" made whatever way is meant to serve the "interests" of the state and that is what the worldover are meant as "national interests" and not the interests of any one of the many institutions including government of the day. Governments are prone to dither, falter and make mistakes not being a body of "know all" persons. They are as such subject to all sorts of criticism and questioning in places where law of jungle does not prevail. We, Muslims take pride in quoting the example of the Second Caliph who was in an open assembly questioned by an illiterate Bedouin about his dress and he explained the whole thing without flying into rage and declaring the questioner outside the pale of Islam for doubting the integrity of the pious Caliph of Islam. Anger and unwarranted aspersions are not Islamic.