The detained nuclear scientist, Dr AQ Khan, has in a dramatic move made public a long charge-sheet against the outgoing chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Attaur Rehman, saying he was the blue-eyed boy of Gen Pervez Musharraf because both hailed from Delhi.
In a note sent to The News on Thursday, Dr Khan regretted that despite eight years in office and spending billions of taxpayers’ money, Dr Attaur Rehman could not even set up a single university, leave alone his tall claims of setting up six foreign universities.
Dr Khan, breaking his silence after a very long time, also made some new revelations, saying Gen Musharraf wanted him to become a minister but he proposed the name of Dr Attaur Rehman. He has also claimed that Pakistan had made the nuclear bomb in 1984.
In his attack on Dr Rehman, the first of its kind which might put the tall claims of the HEC in a new perspective, Dr AQ Khan said: “As an organic chemist with no industrial exposure, he fell into the trap laid by many of the incompetent sycophants that surrounded him. They excelled in on-screen, colourful presentations containing figures, graphs and forecasts, but these were nothing more than a house of cards. Those running the HEC had never set up or run even a high school, let alone a university.”
Ms Henny Khan, the wife of Dr AQ Khan, on behalf of her husband, also sent a long note to this correspondent to join the debate going on about the performance of Dr Attaur Rehman, who was one of the longest-serving persons during the last eight years of Musharraf but failed to deliver.
Dr Khan is the second top man who has blasted Dr Rehman after former minister Ishaq Khan Khakwani.
In his communication to The News, Dr Khan said the article on the Higher Education Commission in The News of Oct 14, 2008, together with the criticism on its performance by former federal minister Ishaq Khan Khakwani and Dr Attaur Rehman’s reaction were highly informative to the common man in general and the academic community in particular.
“The truth always hurts and Khakwani is known for calling a spade a spade. He was also very outspoken in his criticism of Gen (retd) Musharraf’s illegal and unconstitutional acts. On both counts, he has hit the nail right on the head,” Dr Khan said.
He said he had known Prof Dr Attaur Rehman for almost two decades and was aware of his good work at the HEJ Institute at the University of Karachi. He recalled that after Gen (retd) Musharraf staged the coup against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Dr Rehman became Musharraf’s blue-eyed boy, presumably because both came from Delhi.
He revealed: “When I was about to retire, Gen (retd) Musharraf offered me the post of minister of science and technology, which I refused. I had good reasons for doing so. I did not want to be part of the Gen’s cabinet, to see him in cabinet meetings and to shake hands with him as if all was well between us. At their specific request, I suggested Prof Attaur Rehman believing that, as a foreign trained, good academic, he was capable of doing the job. After my retirement, Gen (retd) Musharraf asked me to become his adviser, which I again refused. However, a number of senior Army officers requested me to accept this post for my own good as the general was known to be very vindictive. As adviser, I could keep myself busy with educational activities. I accepted the post on the condition that I would not be required to attend cabinet meetings.”
Dr Khan said after his appointment as minister, Prof Dr Attaur Rehman changed and was no longer the humble person he used to be. None of the advisers (with the status of a federal minister) i.e. Mr Sharifuddin Pirzada, Dr Ishfaq Ahmad and myself ever put a flag on their car or put “federal minister” on their car number plates. On becoming adviser and later the HEC chairman, Prof Dr Attaur Rehman constantly used the term “federal minister”, even adding it on his HEC letterhead. It was a pity he felt the need to do so, as with his educational and professional background, there was no need to do so. His academic achievements said it all.
Coming back to the achievements or lack thereof of the HEC, Dr AQ Khan said billions of rupees were spent over the last eight years with very little to show for it. “Prof Dr Attaur Rehman met me a number of times, the last time being hardly three or four weeks ago. We discussed the establishment of six technical universities with the help of six foreign countries. I was rather shocked to learn from him that all these universities were to be set up by the HEC — all the infrastructure, equipment, faculty, salaries, transport, residential facilities, etc., were to be provided by Pakistan. The foreign universities’ role would be solely to nominate the foreign faculty, advise and issue degrees. I was always under the impression that such universities were to be financed and run by the respective foreign countries. Since Prof Dr Attaur Rehman became the HEC chairman, I have always been advising him to first set up one university and only attempt a second one when the first was up and running smoothly but, as an outsider, my suggestions were not welcomed. We now see the results — hardly anything worth mentioning.”
Dr Khan said another issue that sidetracked the academic one and with serious financial repercussions was the mobile phone publicity campaign. Prof Dr Attaur Rehman, as minister for information technology, went all-out to introduce the mobile phone culture. We all saw on TV how every Tom, Dick and Harry was using a mobile phone, but nobody thought of the financial repercussions.
“In the very first year of its introduction, Pakistan spent $1 billion (one billion dollars) on the import of mobile phones, not even to talk of the remittances back to their parent companies of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. A manufacturing plant, costing a fraction of that amount, could have produced phone locally; thus, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars and providing jobs to many local engineers and technicians. If we were able to produce state-of-the-art centrifuges, high frequency inverters, top quality nuclear valves, ballistic-guided missiles and nuclear weapons, why were we not able to produce mobile phones?
Dr Khan said he had no doubt that Prof Dr Attaur Rehman’s intentions were good. However, he pointed out that his planning proved disastrous. “His weakness was that he was not an engineer and, therefore, lacked a basic understanding of the requirements of technical education. As an organic chemist with no industrial exposure, he fell into the trap laid by many of the incompetent sycophants that surrounded him. They excelled in on-screen, colourful presentations containing figures, graphs and forecasts, but these were nothing more than a house of cards”.
AQ Khan said those running the HEC had never set up or run even a high school, let alone a university. “If Dr Attaur Rehman had listened to my well-meant advice and set up even a single university, he would not be facing such scathing attacks today. Such a university would have seen hundreds of good engineers graduating by now.”
Dr Khan said he always gave Dr Attaur Rehman the example of the GIK Institute. Ghulam Ishaq Khan made him (AQ Khan) project director and he had the unflinching support of Ghulam Ishaq Khan himself, HU Beg, Shamsul Haq, Brig Amir Gulistan Janjua and Elahi Bux Soomro.
“Together, we put up the GIK Technical Institute in two years at a cost of approximately Rs1-1/2 billion. Within two years of its inauguration, it was listed as one of the top ten technical institutions of Asia. Incidentally, my former teacher at Delft (Holland) and Leuven (Belgium), Prof Dr MJ Brabers, was the first rector and there were 15 foreign professors when the institute started functioning.”
Dr Khan said another example of concentrating on one thing at a time was the establishment of the uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta. “We started with literally nothing in 1976 and by August 1984 we had put up one of the most advanced facilities and had even managed to produce nuclear weapons. All this was done with a budget of Rs 100 to 110 million per year.”
He pointed out that Prof Dr Attaur Rehman had visited the plant and was, therefore, in a position to judge himself whether his advice had been genuine and workable.
“Our success was due to putting together of a very strong technical team. We were lucky to have had the full support — both financially and morally — of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Gen Ziaul Haq, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and others. HU Beg was a great supporter to us and looked after our financial requirements with great acumen, ensuring strict control and regular audits,” Dr Khan said.
Dr Khan said it was a great pity that despite his sincere efforts, good intentions and access to funds, Prof Dr Attaur Rehman was not able to deliver what he set out to do. He believed that not a single new university was established or an existing one brought to a level where it could be counted as one of the 200 top-most universities recently mentioned in Time magazine, while India has two mentions on that list. “This is mainly due to his inability to select a competent team of technically experienced advisers. Academicians never make good administrators and planners,” he regretted.
