Nawaz, AQ Khan at loggerheads

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, once hailed as heroes together for transforming Pakistan into a nuclear power, are now at odds, so much so that the PML-N did not invite Dr Khan to a single function it organised to mark the “Yaum-e-Takbeer” on May 28. Nawaz shrank away from mentioning Dr Khan on the occasion and gave the impression that he was the one and only “hero” who had turned Pakistan into a nuclear power. In reply, Dr Khan was equally distant and independently appeared at various May 28 functions. Khan also came down hard on Sharif’s policies as prime minister and politician in a recent column. He credited Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with starting the nuclear programme and characterised Sharif’s polices as unwise and foolish.
Khan painted Sharif as a stupid and mindless, saying he was letting President Asif Ali Zardari get away with everything and remained passive. “In the guise of protecting democracy, he is still playing the role of a friendly opposition and that is why the country has reached the brink of definite collapse,” Khan said. He even suggested that it would be better for the country and the PML-N if Sharif stepped down as chief, assumed the role of a party adviser and delegated all powers to his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, currently the chief minister of Punjab. A senior PML-N leader told Pakistan Today that both Nawaz and Khan were once very close to each other. “AQ Khan was seen with Nawaz Sharif in the media and around the world at the site of the nuclear tests in Chaghi. Both gave credit to each other for the success. On 14th August, 1996, Abdul Qadeer Khan was awarded the highest civilian award Nishan-e-Imtiaz by Nawaz Sharif,” he added. Nawaz, he said, also promised to nominate Dr Khan for president of Pakistan like Dr Abdul Kalam, the former Indian president and father of India’s nuclear bomb.
However, the friends tuned foes when Dr Khan started gaining popularity as a “new Jinnah” some months after the May 28 nuclear tests, according to sources in Raiwind. A time came when Dr Khan surpassed Nawaz in popularity and this was the moment when PML-N top guns warned Nawaz of the situation and suggested that he desert Dr Khan, PML-N sources told Pakistan Today. Afterwards, sources said, the gaps between the two widened and its first manifestation was witnessed when the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government extended his tenure for 3 years, but Nawaz’s government restricted it to a year.
“Later, Dr AQ Khan kept a grudge when his brother died and Nawaz Sharif did not visit his house to offer condolences, while the PML-Quaid leadership especially came to his residence for condolence. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif also avoided supporting him against the cases filed by former president Pervez Musharraf against him,” sources said. A PML-N National Assembly member said that it was because of a common public misconception because of his extreme public popularity that Western and Pakistani media had always portrayed Dr Khan as the “father of the nuclear deterrence research programme”. The fact was that Dr Khan was the head of a single HEU-based gas centrifuge enrichment programme.
The entire deterrence programme was developed by Munir Ahmad Khan of the PAEC, with contributions from other scientists such as Abdus Salam, Riazuddin and Asghar Qadir, under the administrative leadership of former premier Bhutto, who initiated and administrated the programme. PML-N central leader Ahsan Iqbal said Nawaz, not Khan, was the “hero” of the nuclear blasts as he was the person who took the courageous decision. He said that in the early days, Dr Khan was called for May 28 functions because of his official position as head of the KRL. The latest May 28 functions were partisan, and Dr Khan was not a political figure who could be invited, he said.