The minimum that the government could do, is name a leading educational institution after Dr Abdus Salam’s name
ISLAMABAD: On January 29, the 90th birthday of Pakistan’s greatest scientist, Dr Abdus Salam was celebrated by scientists all over the world. The greatest enthusiasm was shown in Singapore, where his birthday was celebrated by the Nanyang University of Science and Technology, which organised an international meeting on high energy physics to which 35 top scientists of the world were invited. These 35 speakers included four Nobel Laureates: David Gross, Anthony Leggett, Carlo Rubbia and Gerard’t Hooft. This galaxy of eminent scientists paid rich tributes to our great Nobel Laureate. According to an expatriate Pakistani friend, who was an invited speaker, the atmosphere at the conference was that of great festivity and the passion of the whole physics community, high.
Compare this with things back home. The only activity was a reference arranged by scientists in Islamabad where the speakers spoke about different aspects of Salam’s life in a lacklustre, matter-of-fact manner. The only high point of the forum was a revelation by Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, ex-Chairman, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. He narrated that after the 1974 Indian nuclear explosion, he had the chance to accompany Salam to participate in the 24th Pugwash meeting which coincided with the Pakistan National Assembly’s decision to declare the Ahmaddiya community out of the constitutional fold of Islam. Salam was naturally very depressed about this development. Yet, in the conference, Salam made a fiery speech condemning the Indian explosion. He even threatened the delegates of the conference that if they did not join him in this condemnation, he, along with his young fellow scientist, Dr Ishfaq, would return to Pakistan and make a bomb of their own. Upon this soul-raising revelation, I thought the audience would go into a tumultuous applause, but no such thing happened. People were only waiting for Dr Ishfaq to finish his speech so that they could have a hot cup of coffee and snacks. My own euphoria also soon died down wondering why Dr Ishfaq had to wait for 42 years to express all this. Then, a simple explanation hit my mind. Dr Ishfaq was simply personifying the famous piece of poetry by Muneer Niazi, “hamesha har kaam main dair kar daita hoon main”.
As far as the Government of Pakistan is concerned, there is total apathy over the event. The minimum it should do, is name a leading educational institution like the Government College University Lahore or the National Centre for Physics, after Dr Abdus Salam’s name.
Dr Masud Ahmad
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2016.
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