Author: Irfan Husain
Publication: Dawn
Date: February 7, 2004
As President Musharraf runs into
increasing flak over his handling of the A.Q. Khan affair, and more murky
details emerge about the haemorrhaging of nuclear secrets, we are left
to ponder yet again over individual greed.
Although many people who had practically
deified Dr Khan now insist that the scientist was merely carrying out state
policy when he handed over nuclear blueprints and equipment to Iran, Libya
and North Korea, the sordid fact is that he profited mightily by the transactions.
While I was aware of some of his Islamabad properties, I had no idea that
Dr Khan's real estate interests extended to places as far flung as Timbuktu.
Indeed, so keen was he to project Pakistan that apparently he had furniture
from the country flown to Mali in PAF C-130s. Now it is difficult to imagine
how this could have been done without the armed forces being aware of these
brazen deals.
Indeed, Musharraf's widely anticipated
pardon for this errant scientist is neither in recognition of his services
in developing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, nor from fear of the mullahs
who are threatening to take to the streets in protest against Khan's 'humiliation'.
The reality is that if the erstwhile
boss of the KRL were to be put on trial, he would inevitably finger a number
of people in and out of uniform, as well as spilling the beans about other
embarrassing secrets. Deciding that these skeletons are far better locked
in their present cupboard, Musharraf is engaging in desperate damage-control
measures, and these call for bottling up the crisis as soon as possible.
While the Americans are deeply unhappy
about letting A.Q. Khan off the hook, they are caught over a barrel: if
they put too much pressure on Musharraf to prosecute the scientist, they
will be undermining him at a time they need him in their war on terror,
as well as wanting him to continue his peace efforts with India. A weakened
Musharraf will be able to deliver on neither front. As it is, he is under
huge pressure from the mullahs as well as centrists who regard A.Q. Khan
as a hero.
In an investigative article called
'Cold Test' published in the New Yorker just over a year ago, Seymour Hersh
quotes CIA sources as reporting that between 1997 and 2002, A.Q. Khan visited
North Korea no fewer than 19 times. Since that inhospitable country is
not known as a tourist resort, one can only wonder what our home-grown
Oppenheimer was doing there with such frequency. And it is inconceivable
that KRL's (military) guardians had no idea of his trips.
The weapons research labs at Kahuta
are the country's most tightly protected facilities, and it beggars belief
to accept the official version that the army had no idea what was happening
there. I recall an incident in the mid-eighties when the French ambassador
(no less) was beaten up by strapping men in tell-tale white shalwar kameez
as he and a deputy stopped their car near the KRL fence. Despite protests,
the matter was hushed up. So tight is the security there that even elected
prime ministers were not allowed entry: when Benazir Bhutto asked Gen Aslam
Beg, the then army chief, to arrange a visit, she was apparently told that
"briefings at Kahuta were on a need-to-know basis, and she currently had
no need to know."
The reason for the North Korea connection
is clear: both impoverished countries entered into a straight trade that
involved Pyongyang's missile technology for Islamabad's design for centrifuges
used in enriching uranium to weapons-grade purity. The KRL fingerprints
were detected by American agents and IAEA inspectors at North Korea's reactor
and reported at the time. But Islamabad came out with its usual denials,
and the matter was not properly investigated.
Another clue to our nuclear proliferation
was contained in the 12,000- page dossier Saddam Hussein presented to the
UN in compliance with Security Council resolution 1441 which called for
full disclosure of Iraq's past WMD programmes. Buried in this mountain
of papers was a memo from an Iraqi secret agent in Dubai who reported being
contacted by a person who purported to represent A.Q. Khan and offered
to sell nuclear secrets to Iraq. Although nothing came of this approach,
this odd incident was reported at the time and routinely denied in our
usual knee-jerk fashion. Had the government been serious about halting
proliferation, there should have been an inquiry into the allegation then
and there.
Many Pakistanis are convinced that
the unmasking of A.Q. Khan is part of some vast conspiracy against Pakistan's
nuclear programme. The truth is that the international community has been
terrified of atomic weapons falling into irresponsible hands. Successive
Pakistani governments have vowed that its programme was fully safeguarded,
and the leadership has a foolproof system of command and control in place.
To address international concerns,
official spokesmen from the very highest level have solemnly assured the
world that there was no possibility of any proliferation taking place from
Pakistani labs. Now that A.Q. Khan has himself confessed to flogging everything
that wasn't nailed down at Kahuta, Pakistan is left - yet again - with
egg on its face. After this scandal, the world will ask who else was on
A.Q. Khan's list of clients: Osama bin Laden? Mullah Omar?
Fortunately for Pakistan, our current
value to Washington in its 'war on terror' outweighs our liability as the
world's champion proliferators. And equally fortunately, Iran and Libya
were a long way from achieving significant enrichment of uranium based
on our technology. However, this is not true of North Korea which has made
rapid progress. Should the crisis on the Korean peninsula escalate to the
point where Pyongyang actually threatens to use its small arsenal of atomic
weapons, A.Q. Khan's global marketing activities could well return to haunt
us.
Despite the seriousness of A.Q.
Khan's televised mea culpa and its implications for Pakistan, many people
- and not just those in government - are still in deep denial. They feel
Pakistan is being unfairly targeted, and moan about how other countries
like Israel indulged in secret and illicit purchases to develop their nuclear
weapons. The problem is that more and more Pakistan is viewed as an irresponsible
state that cannot be trusted with an atomic arsenal. And after this latest
example of cupidity and dissembling at the highest level, who can blame
our critics?
