Adnan Rehmat
Noble Salam by Adnan Rehmat
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Dr Abdus Salam is mainly known for three things – his nationality, his religion and that he won the prestigious Nobel Prize, albeit in the reverse order. What is generally not known about him is that he refused to surrender the nationality of a country that disowned him (Pakistan) and become an Italian citizen even after being requested by Rome (or refused to be buried outside the country that gave him birth), that for someone who is considered a non-Muslim it was the Quran and his faith in Allah (remember he was legally recognised as a Muslim until 1972 when he and his community woke up one fine morning to find that the parliament and the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government had legally changed their religion without asking them) that inspired him on a trail-blazing career in science, and that the Nobel Prize was just one of at least 16 globally prestigious science awards he won (see list in box) and for which he was feted far and wide except in his motherland.
Salam — who should have been celebrated in Pakistan for his achievements for the country he remained loyal to until his last breath, rather than who his God was (who is the God of all) — is that rare man of science who is judged primarily for his faith. And ironically while he had faith in both science and religion, his sadly numerous fellow-country detractors in Pakistan (he is pretty much universally acclaimed abroad) apparently have little faith in science or in the universal values of religion that assert countenance on the nature of goodness of man.
Salam was clear in his approach to science and how the Muslim world had an equal right, and responsibility, to pursue the discovery and understanding of the universe that God created. “Scientific thought is the common heritage of mankind,” he declared, asserting that rationality is not the prerogative of any one single religion. He was also clear about how the generally scientifically-backward Muslim world should develop their strategies. “It is just impossible to talk only of technology transfer. One should talk of science transfer first and technology transfer later; unless you are very good at science you will never be good at technology.” How smart! He was not your stereotype-steeped scientist either — he appreciated the beauty of the nature of beauty. He had this to say about this: “Whenever faced with two competing theories for the same set of observations, I have always found that the theory, which was more aesthetically satisfying is also the correct one.” Talk about finding faith in science!
While he did not wear his faith on his sleeve or make public pronouncements on religion despite the continuous negative references to his beliefs in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Ziaul Haq’s Pakistan, Salam was clearly firm in his beliefs and managed to see the God of one and all, in science: “As a scientist, the Quran speaks to me in that it emphasizes reflection on the Laws of Nature, with examples drawn from cosmology, physics, biology and medicine, as signs for all men.” The nearest a direct response on record to the questioning of his defence that he believed he was a Muslim, is this: “If you consider me to be a non-Muslim, so be it but permit me to lay a brick in the mosque you want to build.”
Salam saw religion as integral to his scientific work. He wrote: “The Holy Quran enjoins us to reflect on the verities of Allah’s created laws of nature; however, that our generation has been privileged to glimpse a part of His design is a bounty and a grace for which I render thanks with a humble heart.” During his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Salam quoted the following verses from the Quran: “Thou see-est not, in creation of the all-merciful any imperfection. Return thy gaze, see-est thou any fissure? Then return thy gaze, again and again. Thy gaze comes back to thee dazzled, aweary.” He then added: “This, in effect, is the faith of all physicists; the deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement of our gaze.”
To study in schools that did not even have tables and chairs, it is remarkable how Salam remained studious in boyhood and shone very quickly as a young man. He was phenomenally brilliant as a student. Says his biography: “When he cycled home from Lahore , at the age of 14, after gaining the highest marks ever recorded for the Matriculation Examination at the University of the Punjab, the whole [home]town Jhang turned out to welcome him. His first paper was written as a student in this dusty but peaceful town [now, sadly, known for a less tolerant disposition] there in 1943 and concerned Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan – that brilliant sub-continental mathematician.”
Pakistan’s equally well-known, if not more – albeit much more loved – physicist is Dr Abdul Qadeer, who is considered the “Father of the [Pakistani nuclear] Bomb” and who is given credit for kickstarting the entire process of the country’s nuclear programme. However, few know that during the early 1970s, much before he won his biggest prize that made him world famous, Salam played a key role in starting Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). In 1972 two theoretical physicists working at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Italy that he set up, were asked by Salam to report to the PAEC chairman and set up the Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) that went on to design Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. The TPG, led by Dr Raziuddin Siddiqui, who was a student of Salam, completed work on the theoretical design of the bomb within five years. So how ironic that the “Islamic bomb” has a hand that was declared non-Muslim!
Salam was man of development and helped found and flourish major research and science development institutions. He helped set up Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco), of which he was the founding director. He was also behind setting up five Superior Science colleges throughout Pakistan. But his best known and widely acknowledged contribution is that he founded and served as director (1964-93) of the prestigious ICTP in Trieste, Italy. Salam also founded the Third World Academy of Sciences. In 1959, he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society (at that time) at the age of 33. The Italian government after his death renamed ICTP as the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics. Pakistan, of course, ‘honoured’ him by ignoring him altogether. In a country where roads, stadiums, centers and even cities are named after foreigners, the only instance of the state acknowledging its illustrious son was including him in a series of postage stamps bearing portraits of Pakistani scientists.
Salam was born on January 29, 1926 (he would have celebrated his 83rd birthday this week) and passed away at the age of 70 on November 21, 1996 in Oxford after a prolonged bout of illness. As per his will, his body was flown to Pakistan for burial. He was laid to rest in Rabwah. While 30,000 attended his funeral, there was no one representing either the state that he loved so much, the government or the scientific community that he helped so much, at his funeral. This man of science was buried without official protocol from the state, next to his parents’ graves. The epitaph on his tomb initially read “First Muslim Nobel Laureate” but, because this state discriminates between its subjects on the basis of religion, as enshrined in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a local magistrate ordered removed the word “Muslim” leaving the farcical citation “First Nobel Laureate”. A state that puts no faith in science cannot advance – name one Muslim country known for its knowledge prowess or technological edge. The state of Pakistan may have refused to own this illustrious son of the soil as the world’s first Muslim to win a Nobel prize in science but it is sad that it also refuses to honour him as the Muslim world’s first Nobel prize winner.
Judgement Day by Adnan Rehmat
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Elected governments in Pakistan are rarely ousted by voters (Musharraf and Shujaat’s PML-Q being the only such specimen). More often than not this task is undertaken with relish by the military through armed coups. Or by one elected government against another through Governor Rule, the PPP turning this into an art form, having employed this dubious instrument in all instances of the country’s history save one. Either way, the pandemonium in Punjab is more than a just court case about the eligibility of the Sharif brothers – the bench was also on trial.
What makes this no ordinary a verdict is that Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif have not just been declared ineligible for membership of legislatures but also that neither can the elder brother become prime minister or chief minister nor the younger brother chief minister again. Both also stand disqualified from being formal leaders of their Pakistan Muslim League-N. This is effectively a knockout of the Sharifs from formal politics since they have lost power, lost membership of legislatures and lost leadership of the country’s second largest party.
This raises the issue of whether the courts should have the power to decide who can and who can’t become the country’s leaders and the leaders of political parties. While justice, they say, is blind – the laws currently in force helped the bench deliver this shocker – surely the judges are not. How can they have ignored that while legal decisions can address a temporary situation, lasting acceptance comes only through legitimacy of trust. The final verdict lies with the people. At least four times has Pakistan’s superior judiciary legalized martial law (twice by Musharraf) and at least thrice declared the sacking of elected governments and prime ministers by military backed presidents as valid. At least once the same court ordered an elected prime minister swing on the gallows. See how history views these verdicts now. Have we really produced judges without vision? The people of Pakistan deserve better.
And if the latest ‘big’ verdict is such a fine example of universal values, why are the sweetmeat shops deserted? It is peculiar that even though many see the PPP being the immediate beneficiary (considering it has a shot now at coming to power for the first time in over 30 years in Punjab), where is the jubilation of the triumphant? The reaction from all quarters in Pakistan to the verdict is either anger or shock even though the court’s verdict was Pakistan’s worst kept secret for weeks. Not even PPP leaders seem happy. Why this near universal non-satisfaction with ‘justice’ having being delivered?
PPP ministers and other leaders are avoiding giving responses to the verdict apart from a muted mumble here and there about respecting court verdicts even though the Supreme Court delivered a death sentence on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, which is now rejected by not just this but many other parties also. It appears that even if the PPP leaders are not sad at the prospects of their biggest political rivals knocked out of electoral politics, they don’t seem happy either. If the ruling party is not happy at the disqualification of the Sharifs and had not courted this then the question arises as to who gets to really gain from this development? No less that Khurshid Shah, a senior ruling party leader, says the ‘establishment’ in particular and ‘non-democratic forces’ in general, who do not want the supremacy of democratic forces and sovereignty of parliament as these are the only danger to them, will benefit.
The impact of the verdict in this case will extend beyond a legal interpretation that is as controversial as it was expected. Whatever the technical aspects or merits of the verdict, the already controversial Supreme Court has become even more contentious. Its reputation has been dealt a crippling blow even as an institution several judges and thousands of lawyers seek justice for its deposed top judge. How to reconcile the fact that an army chief topples an elected government and he is given legitimacy and not just that; a serving general is allowed by the same court to be eligible for public office and yet a party and its leaders elected by millions of voters are considered ineligible for representation.
Justice, after all they say, not only should be done but also needs to be seen to be done. Perceptions are important. People will always connect the dots. The connection between judges having sworn an oath of allegiance to a military ruler and providing him relief is clear. Judges who refused were sacked. That was clear. Also transparent is the fact that the judges sworn in by Musharraf have not been removed by the current rulers even when they had promised to do so. It is no surprise that not just the aggrieved party (the Sharifs and their PML-N) but also the people in general see a connection between the current judges and the controversial verdict they have handed out and support to them extended by the PPP in their ‘legal’ defense.
Barely 50 hours before the verdict Prime Minister Yousaf Gilani and Shahbaz Sharif in a meeting had agreed to make joint efforts to make the parliament supreme over all other institutions. Clearly, the Supreme Court verdict is a message for Gilani that his is not the station for such lofty ambitions, which do not suit his party colleagues higher in hierarchy than him.
Sharifs have alleged that Asif Zardari is singularly behind the Dogar Court’s verdict. The PPP may pooh-pooh this charge but for a verdict that stretched for eight months and was handed down the day after Zardari returned from China so he could conveniently take the next step to taking control of Punjab makes it hard to ignore PML-N’s suspicions.
Had the government wanted, it could have prolonged the case through its attorney general so as to at least see through the long march and the sit-in planned by the lawyers and keep the PML-N away from adding muscle to this popular movement. But considering the closing arguments of Latif Khosa in the case against the Sharifs, few can doubt that a select band of the PPP leadership carefully planned to convert Punjab into a political battleground and to plough its best horses into the course.
But where’s the calculation of the fallout of the Sharifs’ knockout? Benazir Bhutto’s death triggered days of intense and violent protests but because she couldn’t be brought back, as her death was irreversible, the protests died down. But the PML-N and its supporters and voters are going to be around, as are the Sharifs, so it is hard to see that the protests will not be prolonged particularly when they join forces with the lawyers and those agitators par excellence – Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s Jamaat-e-Islami and Imran Khan’s Tehrik-e-Insaf. After all it’s best not to take lightly Nawaz Sharif’s pregnant threat that Punjab will not take this ’slap on its face’ lying down.
PPP’s connivance or not, any short-term gains for Zardari’s party will be a huge price to pay for the court’s pushing of Pakistan into the 1990s’ era of political destabilization, which centred on bringing down governments rather than governance. This can only mean that the establishment will reclaim an overwhelming influence once again on the national polity and claw back to the status of the chief arbiter of fates of major political parties. This, in turn, means that not just the PML-N but the PPP will also be the loser in the medium term. In the long term, though, the PPP will be the bigger loser as it assumes the perception of a force akin to the Muslim League faction led by Sharif in the time of General Ziaul Haq – hands in glove with the establishment – while the PML-N assumes the position once enjoyed by PPP, again in the time of Zia. How ironical.
