Bombs, Missiles and Pakistani Science I read Hoodbhoy`s paper and was thoroughly confused on some issues.The author put forth a thesis in his paper that production of the nuclear

bomb by Pakistan, although not a mean feat in

itself, did not contribute to the development of

scientific education in Pakistan or was not relevant to science. However, the objectives of

making the bomb did not include such onsiderations

in the agenda; the purpose of the project was entirely different. The bomb was made to secure national defense and that objective has been accomplished, I believe. Another issue that the author mentioned was that the production of the bomb did not require any original ideas in science

and technology; these ideas are at least 50 years old. So what? One should remember that the bomb project was not a `scientific research project`. The bomb was produced for national defence easons. The correlation between the bomb project and ``Pakistani science`` is unfortunate; the two are not related. If the bomb did not do much to develop any scientific research or contribute to science education in Pakistan, it did not depress such activities either. Science education in Pakistan continues to be as bad as it was 50 years back. It is not for want of money. One good thing that the `explosions` did was that they hit the common man in the street as hard as nothing before and made him think and believe that Pakistan needs science and technology. Science and technology are needed for national survival.

Another point that may have been implied in the paper is that the money that was spent on the bomb project could probably have been more usefully spent on science education and research. There is no dearth of money in Pakistan. The money spent on the bomb was usefully spent otherwise it would have gone to line the private pockets of influential corrupt Pakistanis. Discussing the rampant corruption in Pakistan, Ghazali (1) states ``on April 20, 1994, giving details about the payments made by Yunus Habib (Chief Executive of Mehran Bank) to generals, politicians, and political parties, Interior Minister, General Nasirullah Babar, told the National Assembly that the main beneficiary of his largesse was former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg who received Rs.140 millions. Others who were named included: Jam Sadiq Ali (Rs. 70 millions from Habib Bank and Rs. 150 millions from Mehran Bank); MQM`s Altaf Hussein (Rs. 20 millions);.....;Nawaz Sharif (Rs. 6 millions);Chief Minister of Sindh, Muzaffar Hussein Shah through his secretary (Rs. 13 millions);MQM`s Haqiqi(Rs. 5 millions); former Sports Minister, Ajmal Khan (Rs. 3.5 millions); Liaquat Jatoi (Rs. 1 million); Dost Mohammad Faizi (Rs. 1 million); and Jam Haider (Rs. 2 million).``

Another uncomfortable impression that I gathered after reading the paper was that engineers` contributions, according to the author, are somehow inferior to those of the scientists. According to him ``making bombs and missiles of the type Pakistan and India possess is now the work of engineers and no longer that of scientists``. As if the first bomb that the U.S. produced was without any assistance from the engineers. Is Hoodbhoy implying that the first atomic bomb was the handiwork of the scientists alone? Are`nt we forgetting one important fact? The Manhattan Project was spearheaded by an engineer. What was Leslie Groves who was the chief executive of the Manhattan Project? Yes sir: He was a U.S. Army Engineer. Score of Nobel Laureates, phyisicists, chemists, mathematicians and others, worked under him. According to William Lawren (2), ``He (Groves) had worked with scientists before, and although he did not deny their intelligence and capability, he felt that they tended to be impractical. Instead of sticking with a perfectly good design and seeing it through, they were forever tinkering with it, forever improving it, forever drifting off on interesting but not quite-relevant tangents``. The success of Manhattan Project owed itself to team work and the leadership of a driven and obsessed engineer.

A developing society like Pakistan, and the developed countries as well, needs all kinds of skilled professionals. It needs engineers of all kinds, technicians, technologists, scientists, medical doctors, health scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, liberal artists, writers, poets,.... you name it. Engineering education in Pakistan is as miserable as of science and of liberal arts. There should be room for intellectuals as well as down to earth practical professionals. A scociety can not develop in vaccum. You need engineers to build dams and hydro-electric and thermal power plants, to build roads and bridges, railways, automobiles, aeroplanes and air ports. You need imaginative technologists to develop new technologies; you need poets and painters; you need theoretical and experimental physicists and chemists, so on and so forth. True Dr Qadir Khan is not a nuclear physicist but he himself does not claim to be one. His being a metallurgical engineer in no way detract anything from his monumental feat of producing the bomb for which he was hired in the first place. And you know what? A common citizen does`nt give two hoots if he is only a metallurgical engineer and not a nuclear physicist. Labelling professionals by the degrees that they received in schools and colleges may many a time be fallacious, although convenient. How would you label Michael Faraday, the greatest scientist of his time? He did not have much of formal education. Please try not to misunderstand me; I am not implying that Dr Khan is some kind of a Farady. He is a metallurgical engineer and an excellent one too. I do not know the man personally but he may have published some research papers also in his own specialized field.

References:

1. Abdus Sattar Ghazali, ``Islamic Pakistan: Illusions and Reality``, National Book Club, Islamabad, Chapter XI, p. 22 of 28.

2. William Lawren, ``The General and the Bomb``, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1988, p. 25.



Mohammad A. Gill

Abdus Salam Professor Salam was a boon from heaven to Pakistan. It is Pakistan`s misfortune that Salam`s contribution to fundamental physics is gauged by his religious faith by many Pakistanis. Since he did not belong to a mainstream religious group (Ahmadis will dispute it), his contribution has been denigrated, his personal integrity was doubted by many religious fanatics, and his sense of patriotism challenged. He is held in a much greater respect outside Pakistan world wide. It appears that the United Kingdom has adopted Salam as one of its own. English pride in Salam`s work oozes out in the appreciative writings of the British scientists.

I was in Nigeria when the Nobel Prize was conferred on Salam for his work on the unification of electro-magnetic and weak forces. The educated Nigerians were so proud of Salam`s contribution; in fact University of Maiduguri recognised Salam`s work by awarding him an honrary degree of Doctor of Science.

His work has been celebrated all over the world. Leon Lederman, another Nobel Laureate in Physics, wrote in his book, The God Particle, ``Einstein`s thirty years of fruitless efforts to find a unified theory was bested in the late 1960`s by Glashow, Weinberg, and Salam`s successful unification of the weak force and the electro-magnetic force.``

Times are changing even in Pakistan. When I was a teen ager, Manto`s ``Thanda Ghosht`` caused a great deal of stir in India and Pakistan and he was tried in a court of law for writing an obscene story. Now stories like thanda ghosht are routinely written and read in Pakistan without missing a heart beat. Many people, at least the educated

people, challenge religious faith and proclaim themselves to be agnostics without fear. The next generation of Pakistan will hopefully embrace Professor Salam as one of their heroes, probably the only one in modern science so far. He will be a source of ispiration to aspiring scientists in Pakistan.

Mah Allah bless his soul.



Mohammad A. Gill

Assistant General Superintendent of Engineering

Detroit Water & Sewerage Department

Detroit, USA