Abdul Qadeer Khan: The Man Behind the Myth
Interview by Zeba Khan
ZK: Dr. Khan, your opponents consider you an evil scientist of some sort, and your fans think of you as a national hero, but what do you think of yourself?Dr. Khan: I am not at all surprised at what my adversaries think of me abroad and what my fellow countrymen think of me at home. Unfortunately, my adversaries belong to a category of people who did not even spare our God, our Prophets and our most honest and sincere leaders. They dislike me and accuse me of all kinds of unsubstantiated and fabricated lies because I disturbed all their strategic plans, the balance of power and blackmailing potential in this part of the world. I am not a madman or a nut.
If making nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of safeguarding the existence, independence and sovereignty of your country could be termed madness or fanatism, then there are many thousands in other countries who should be awarded even bigger titles. I am proud of my work for my country. It has given Pakistanis a sense of pride, security and has been a great scientific achievement. I am extremely happy and grateful to all those Pakistanis who appreciate my services for our country and show tremendous love, affection and respect for me, my family and my colleagues. No money on earth can buy the love and affection that has been given to me by a grateful nation. In short, I consider myself a humble, patriotic Pakistani who gave his best for his country.
ZK: After your success with Pakistan's nuclear program you launched a campaign against illiteracy instead of disappearing into a quiet and comfortable life. Why?
Dr. Khan: The reason for that is obvious, most of the problems in our society spring from illiteracy. Hatred, intolerance, poor hygienic conditions and violence all have roots in illiteracy, so we're trying to do something to help the poor and the needy. I also thought we should set up clinics for those people in the suburbs of Islamabad who can't afford to come to the city. If they have to travel five or six kilometers into the city, that's a hundred rupees already. Then, THEY may not have money for prescriptions and could end up buying cheaper, generic versions that are sometimes fake. We have five free clinics, each clinic sees about 80-100 patients a day. They operate six days a week from nine to three, and the medicines are all free. Some of the medicines we buy, some are donated by various pharmaceutical companies, but we charge nothing from the patients, not even ten rupees for registration.
ZK: But why not retire? Why stay in the public eye at all?
Dr. Khan: Some people are ok with doing nothing all day after they retire, but then some people if they had nothing to do would go mad and start banging their heads against a wall. I'm one OF those people. I can't ever retire, if I quit government work I will do social work full time. Charity is the family business. My parents were very kind and gentle to people, my children do the same, and even my little granddaughter does the same. When she has two biscuits she always gives one of them away. I keep busy in other ways too not just charity, I coordinate a number of scientific projects, I'm working on industrial revival and establishment, I'm on the boards of so many Universities. I've built a Polytechnic Institute in Mianwali, and NOW I'm building a Genetic Engineering Institute in Karachi, which I believe will be the best in all of Asia.
ZK: How has fame treated you?
Dr. Khan: Well, sometimes if I go out to dinner with my family, people will come up to me and put their hand across my plate for me to shake, sometimes when I have a bite of food in my mouth. I find this a bit disturbing. I have to ask Allah's forgiveness and not get angry, because they come to me out of love, and it's not fitting that I should turn to them in hatred. It's my wonderful wife who has suffered the most in all this, she's lost much of her privacy. But I tell her there's a good side and a bad side to everything. The moment people realize who she is she is taken good care of. They show a lot of affection and respect to her.
ZK: There must be some benefits to being THE Dr. Khan.
Dr. Khan: If I escort my wife to the plane when she's flying somewhere, the crew will take notice of who she is and she will receive VIP treatment from the moment she steps on the plane. As for me, I can't even stop by the roadside at a small hut to drink chai without someone paying for me. People go out of their way to show the love and respect for me. It is very gratifying.
ZK: When's the last time you paid for dinner?
Dr Khan: It's been a long time, I can't remember, but I have never tried to take undue advantage of who I am. Once, I was leaving the VIP lounge at an airport, and the security guard asked to see my VIP lounge card. I didn't scream and wave my arms and say 'Don't you know who I am? I'm Qadeer Khan!" I just took my card out of my pocket and showed it to him, that man was just doing his job, and that's wasn't a problem for me at all. His supervisor did come and yell at him though, he waved his arms and said 'Don't you know who this is? This is Dr. Qadeer Khan!"
ZK: How do you occupy your free time?
Dr. Khan: I like to feed the squirrels at my office, and the monkeys who live in forest in front of my home. Even if I'm on my way to work, if I see them waiting outside I go back to the kitchen and fetch some bananas or apples. I read a lot, and I write a lot. I'm currently in the process of writing down everything I can remember, anything and everything that has ever happened to me, and I'm putting it in various diaries. (Dr.Khan pointed to a large metal sandooq (chest) in the hallway) This trunk is full of my diaries, but for the moment I've locked it and I can't find the key.
ZK: Is it true that you drive around in a bullet-proof car?
Dr. Khan: (laughing) I never bothered with bullet proof cars. I walk down the street and I buy my own vegetables. There's no security risk, the only problem is that when I go out people gather around me. There's no real security anyhow, show me a single person who's managed to cheat the Angel of Death. Kennedy died, Saadaat Died, Zia-ul-Haq died, when it's your time to go, it's just your time to go. I never restricted my daughters either when they were growing up. I didn't want them to be burdened with not being able to go to school picnics or having to travel with armed security guards. I never even went to my daughters' school. I wanted them to grow up like normal children.
ZK: Do you remember when Pakistan gained its independence? What do you remember from when you migrated from Bhopal, India to Pakistan?
Dr. Khan: I was ten when Pakistan got its independence, and I was living in the predominantly Muslim state of Bhopal, India. The situation was relatively calm compared to what was happening in the rest of India and Pakistan, but still I can remember trains coming into the station full of dead Muslims. It was horrible. I migrated from Bhopal six years later, when it was safer for Muslims to travel, but even then the Indian authorities were treating the Muslim horribly.
At one train station the soldiers pulled gold jewelry off of Muslim women and pulled the earrings out of their ears. Every valuable possession was taken from the passengers, and ticket checkers refused to return your ticket unless they were illegally gratified. I had been traveling with a pen that my brother gave me when I passed my exams, and just as I was crossing out of India, a border guard reached towards me and snatched it from my pocket. The pen had almost no monetary value, but the guard's behavior hurt me, and it was something I'll never forget.
ZK: You are engaged in a number of social welfare and charity works. Some people might consider this as an attempt for self-projection. What do you think of it?
Dr. Khan: Firstly, other peoples' opinions do not matter. Some people don't even respect the Prophets, so why should I expect any better? I think of myself as a postman. God has put me in a position where He gives me things; money and resources, and it's only my job to make the deliveries to others. People accuse me of being extravagant in my charity, and ask me what I'll do if I run out of money. Well, if I run out of money, I just won't be able to do this anymore, that's all. But, if I have money and don't help other people with it then my conscious will be burdened, I'll be too guilty to sleep at night.
ZK: Tell me something that most people don't know about you.
Dr. Khan: Some people have the impression that because I built a nuclear bomb I'm some sort of cruel person. That's not the case. I own many guns but I've never shot even a bird. I love animals, and I wouldn't even harm an ant. Any one of my friends or family can tell you that same. I built a weapon of peace, which seems hard to understand until you realize that Pakistan's nuclear capability is a deterrent to aggressors. There has not been a war in the last 30 years and i don't expect one in the future. The stakes are too high and any aggressor will have to consider carefully.
ZK: Well, in closing, what advice would you have for Pakistanis who are overseas right now?
Dr. Khan: My advice to them would be that when they come to visit their families, they shouldn't waste their time and breath discussing and arguing and trying to solve every single problem in Pakistan just by talking about it. I'd say to them, instead of doing that, go to wherever it is you came from and build a small school or a medical center. Run it as a private institution if you want, so long as you make concessions for poor students or patients. If you can't be there long enough, form an association of your friends and other donors and have them see to it.
Even if you just go to a small village and pay for the boring of an underground well, you'll be doing more to help than discussing every minute detail of Pakistan's social, economic and political scene and spending nothing but your breath. If you have more time, put in a basic sanitation system! You can take your education and your money and bring awareness to our people. Even if the school you build only goes to eighth grade, you have still given the people the tools to read newspapers and books independently. They can then learn on their own and at least have basic knowledge about health and other things. The overseas Pakistanis should stop talking about how to fix the government and just do some grass-roots teaching and social work instead. You've got to work hard to help people, I don't understand why everyone wants to be a king and no one wants to be a soldier. Whoever comes from abroad wants to solve all the problems of Benazir, Nawaz Sharif and Gen. Pervez Musharraf put together. They should try to solve the problems of the poor people who have no potable water, a primary school or a basic sewerage system in their villages.
