The man we did not (and do not) honour
So many Pakistanis are delighted that our criminal neglect of Dr Abdus Salam, Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate, is not continuing. Pakistan’s premier academic institution, Lahore University of Management Sciences, with Dr Adil Najam as its vice chancellor, has launched a fundraising campaign to establish the Dr Abdus Salam chair to honour Pakistan’s brilliant physicist. What a tragic abandoning of a son who crowned the nation as he excelled globally in the task that Allah most preferred for his creation – the task of acquiring and indeed creating knowledge!
Little surprise that the amazing Dr Salam had so profoundly said of the Holy Quran that “more than anything else I know of, it speaks of the eternal wonder I have personally experienced in my own science” and then quoted this verse from Surah Luqman: “And if all the trees on earth were pens and the ocean (were ink), with seven oceans behind it to add to its (supply), yet would not the words of Allah be exhausted (in writing): for Allah is Exalted in Power, full of wisdom.” (31-27)
Genuinely great people have millions of stories about their greatness that do the rounds. But if you are lucky to have one that you personally witnessed then that’s what really stays with you. It’s fate’s gift to you, for life and I can boast of one such gift! In May 1989, barely a year into journalism, my editor Arif Nizami told me one morning that I had to interview the noble laureate the next day. Those weren’t Google times so for research on the grand doctor, I rummaged through the mega files. Next morning dressed in my best, deeply nervous and desperately trying to wear an intelligent look, I arrived at Dr Salam’s door. Welcoming me warmly with an innocent, endearing smile was Dr Salam sahib himself.
The 63 year old Dr Salaam showed signs of deteriorating health. “I have always wanted to come back to Pakistan, I am an old man and I would like to die here.” he said wearing a pained look. At that time, Dr Abdus Salam was the founder-director of the prestigious International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. It was founded in 1964 in response to Dr Salam’s proposal as Pakistan’s delegate to the International Atomic Energy’s Conference in Vienna in 1960.
Dr Salam helped create several institutes of excellence including the Third World Academy of Sciences at Trieste in 1983; an Academy where Indians and Iranians, but no Pakistanis, were enrolled in large numbers.
After being awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979, Dr Salam devoted his time largely to fundraising activities to bridge the technology divide between the developing and the developed countries by stopping the brain drain.
Dr Salam was very concerned about the adverse influence of Indian military build-up on Pakistan and said he would take up the issue with Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi. In his meeting with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, he strongly advocated increased allocation of funds and setting up of centres of science and technology in every province.
Virtually no interest of Pakistani rulers, entrepreneurs, economists and planners in science-based technology of the day, he argued, led to the slow scientific development in Pakistan. Dr Salam believed the private sector could play a major role in the area but recognised that investors mostly looked for attractive return on investment. He recalled bringing an entrepreneur from London hoping to encourage Pakistani businessmen to invest in high technology based on assurances of six percent return on capital in the initial stages. The return was considered too meagre by investors who suggested that investment in real estate gave them capital gains between 40 and 60% annually without the slightest effort. An anguished Salam sahib had exclaimed: “Now you can’t think of the country and at the same time think of 40 per cent and six per cent.”
He made an interesting observation regarding the reason behind India’s clear edge in the field. “In Indian character, there is more inclination towards embracing poverty than in Pakistani character. They are willing to do things for small sums of money but here we are not. Our attitude has always been that of the sahibs.” Then India has had from the outset the advantage of having Nehru, who was greatly interested in scientific development and got the right people and had laboratories built right away, as its leader.
When asked whether he would give up his position at Trieste if Pakistan government were to set up a science institute and sought his services, his immediate response was: “I will give up anything. Returning to Pakistan has been very important to me.” But the hostile environment in Pakistan prevented his return.
Dr Salam talked of his pain at being unable to be of service to Islam and to Pakistan. Although disillusioned with the state of scientific research in Pakistan, his message was one of hope as he said, “Optimism is very important. I was recently reminded that when the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) was pelted with stones in Taif, he was not disappointed. Instead he prayed and said: ‘Oh God this nation has not understood me today, give them the realisation.’ So that’s the way I think about the matter.”
His message for the young Pakistanis who aspired to be great scientists was that “They should not lose hope and should get their science from whichever source they can. Then they should pursue it and, InshaAllah some day Pakistan will need them.”
Towards the end of the interview, Dr Salam’s friends arrived. He was to depart for Delhi and just before leaving Dr Salam said: “Now let us pray” and quietly we all did.
Seven years later, when Dr Salam died in England after a prolonged illness so many Pakistanis cried at our loss and no less over our national guilt of not honouring him while he lived. On November 24, 1996 his mortal remains were brought to Pakistan for burial at his ancestral graveyard in Rabwah. Sadly there was reportedly no government functionary at the funeral of the country’s lone Nobel Laureate, this icon in science, who won the world’s most prestigious award and earned international acclaim for Pakistan in one of the most challenging domains of science.
Yet today as LUMS makes the commendable effort there is reason to be hopeful. One aspect of Pakistan’s own Arab Spring would be to battle away from hate and ignorance to embrace the humanism and dedication to brilliance that the Holy Quran and our Prophet (pbuh) taught us and what Jinnah’s Pakistan was meant to be – and will InshaAllah now be.
The writer is a senior journalist and has been a diplomatic correspondent for leading dailies. She can be reached via email at qudssia@hotmail.com