Another Holy Cow

8/8/2019 Another Holy Cow

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Another holy cow?

Earlier this year, the leading magazine TIME, in its issue of 19 January 2004, had a lead

story titled “Inside the A-Bomb Bazaar”. The article helps one read the writings on the

wall. It foretells what is in store for us for which ground is being built. Other things aside,the article makes two points; one, Pakistan’s scientists did swap nuclear know-how with

other states, and two, Pakistani scientists amassed a wealth that paid for their lavish

lifestyle.

The story of a wolf and the lamb drinking from the same stream recreates itself in real

life each time. “Why are you making the water muddy?” the wolf demanded from the

lamb. “How can I make the water muddy since it is coming from your side?” the lambmeekly said. “Heh, I have recognized you as the one who partook my food last year.”

“But I had not grown teeth last year, sir.” “But you did drink my water then, didn’t you?”

“Sire, I could then only drink my mama’s milk” The wolf retorted that mention of his

mama reminded him that it must have been her who drank the water. The wolf then ateup the lamb. He at least had the satisfaction of being morally justified.

It is said that the wolf still relates the story to his friends quite often. He has now several

other grievances against the late Mr. Lamb. “He was insolent and argued too much. He

should have met the fate he met” wolf recalls. We are sadly mistaken if we think that we

are not in line for being disarmed. While the full attention of the West is on Iran and North Korea after neutralizing Iraq and Libya, hints are being dropped that we, the

Pakistanis, are not as responsible as we would have been if we had white skins.

We are living in a fool’s paradise. The government thinks that by debriefing our own

scientists, we are going to take air out of the moral balloon floating over the sky. No,quite the opposite. If they have decided to take upon us, it will follow regardless. Equallynaïve is the attitude of taking out processions against debriefing of scientists. If we show

the world that we are a careless lot, the propaganda will mount to unbearable levels. We

are in a fix, doomed if we do, damned if we don’t.

One must remember that one thing this war against weapons is not, it is the religious war.

Nobody is against an “Islamic bomb” or a “Hindu bomb”, for instance. The bomb and the

bullet has no religion and no culture, it is aptly said. It is a quest for the supremacy of the North upon the South. Underneath is economics, pure and simple. It follows that if things

keep moving in the present direction and with the existing momentum, Pakistan’s turn

will come, Musharraf or no Musharraf, and so will India’s, BJP or no BJP.

These inspections are not going to be something pleasant. One must not lose sight of the

fact that in the last weeks immediately preceding the recent invasion of Iraq, the only place where the weapons were not searched were the undergarments of President Saddam

Hussein. Even the persons and the palaces of Iraqi government’s high-ups were searched,

Saddams’ included. The only humiliation left was taken care of when Saddam got



arrested, and his teeth were inspected with torches on the pretext of “thorough medical

examination”.

Iraq and Libya are different from the democracies of Pakistan and India, one must

emphasize. And that our interlocutors are precisely those who were the ones to actually

use the nuclear device against civilians. The ones about to come at the receiving end,Pakistan and India, are the ones who have only fought humane wars. The calculated way

the wars of 1948, 1965, 1971 and the Kargil conflict of 1999, were fought betrays

sagacity of the South Asian political leadership.

Civilians were never indiscriminately targeted, rules of war were never brazenly violated

and neither side resorted to weapons of mass destruction. Pakistanis had the decency of

looking day and night the injured captured Indian soldiers, in her military hospitals TheIndian soldiers repaired the damaged mosques before they exchanged the area occupied

by them in the wake of the Simla agreement. They had the courage of saluting the dead

body of Capt. Sher Khan, Nishan-e-Haider , in the Kargil conflict before returning it with

the recommendation that he be awarded the highest military honor in Pakistan. Both sideshad the moral sense to treat each other’s POWs strictly in accordance with the Geneva

Conventions. It’s a strange world where the Russians and the Americans who killed amillion humans each in Afghanistan and Vietnam, respectively, are being conferred the

right to permanently hold nukes. It is a typical illustration of pot calling the kettle black

I am not arguing for the “right” of any nation to hold WMDs or the nuclear weapons. Far from that, I am calling for a voluntary denunciation of such weapons by the leadership of

the Asian nuclear powers, namely, China, India and Pakistan. The point being made is

that tact and responsibility are not something to be kept in the closet. If we are maturenations, we must have the courage to say that we do not want to keep such forces of

destruction which are a slight to reason and to humanity.

It is said that some explorers were wandering in a jungle in Africa. They had been

cautioned to guard against cannibals who were known to relish human flesh. They came

across a few decently dressed persons sitting underneath a tree. “I hope there are nocannibals around” the explorers asked with a sense of ease. “Oh no, please, don’t worry”

the leader of the gentlemen said reassuringly, “The last three who were still alive, we ate

them yesterday.” Should we allow the West to devour each of us of our self respect and

sovereignty while keeping a high moral ground also? It is high time that we must realizethat we are going to face tough times in near future. We must be prepared for that.

One must also point out that we have too many holy cows and there is no single goodreason why we should expand the list. The judiciary and the armed forces were not

subject to criticism. The swords of Damocles in the form of “contempt of court” and

“reasons of national security” are enough a deterrent to throttle any criticism. I havealways understood the logic of intolerance to censure. But the logic behind the absence of

independent audit, I have not. How could the Defense budget being debated and

approved by the representatives of the people be harmful to anyone’s interests or those of

the State. Similarly, bringing the same under the purview of the Auditor General of



Pakistan, may actually be advantageous for the system as a whole. Transparency is the

first requisite of freedom.

Why I am dwelling upon the defense budget. The budget of the institutions associated

with the weaponization program, primarily, the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) and

the National Commission of Science and Technology (NESCOM), were never madesubject to audit. They fell under the Defense budget and not under that of Science and

Technology.

The leading self-declared hero of Pakistan not only became owner of, according to some

unofficial sources, 29 palatial houses and two restaurants in the expensive city of

Islamabad, but both his sons-in-law became the principal suppliers of every item from

stationery to vehicles to the highly sensitive organization he was heading. But bigger thanhis real estate empire was the halo he created around himself by paying journalists and

journals who declare him personality of the year every year. Not only the libraries and the

institutions were named after him, he succeeded in getting named chowks and bazaars in

his name, by doling out donations from the taxpayer’s money.

The sister organization also became another personal fiefdom of another leading scientistwho came to light during the 1998 nuclear tests. His own son, a Ph.D from UK, was

given a BS-19 position, with a special remuneration pay package that the Prime Minister

of the country cannot dream of. His younger son-in-law, an army officer, failed to get

admission to the Command and Staff College, Quetta, meaning thereby, that he could notrise beyond Major. He was relieved from army in utter disregard of the rules and inducted

in his father-in-law’s organization as Manager (Technical). The only technical

background theretofore of the illustrious “da’maad” had been that he had once changed a bulb in his kitchen.

If we have to survive as a nation, we shall have to remove the inner contradictions first.We can fight away the imperial dictates not by weapons but through inner strength of the

system that can only come through freedom, democracy and transparency. We have to

break the deified icons. The civil service and the armed forces, the politicians and thescientists, nothing is sacred per se; it is Pakistan and her national interests that must hold

supreme in our eyes. Let us call for the debriefing sessions to continue and to expand the

circle to include many more related persons, besides the six still being held, and to ask

more questions about the lavish lifestyles of some of the scientists as well.

The writer is a free lance researcher and analyst on Islam and politics.

The author is an expert in the international relations of the Muslim world and is an

Oxford-published author.

(Saad S. Khan)

Another Holy Cow

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