In an exclusive interview with iMediaEthics, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the metallurgist blamed by the West for making Pakistan a nuclear power, condemned inaccuracies in The Atlantic magazine’s November 2005 cover story, which he says falsely accused him of a ‘brazen act of illegality’ when it claimed his Rawalpindi house was “built in blatant disregard of the law.”
Khan told iMediaEthics, a website which advocates for fair journalism, by phone that the report in The Atlantic “is totally rubbish and based on lies by William Langewiesche, who is a liar.” The Bani Gala house in sight of Rawal Lake “is totally a legal construction and there are dozens of houses in the row of my house.”
“The court has requested me not to indulge in such interviews and conflicting debates,” Khan said, “but despite this I would like to say that the writer, William Langewiesche, has been involved for a long time in my character assassination campaign.”
Langewiesche’s story sets up a dramatic opposition: the wealthy Khan, with the large country home, against Islamabad’s poor, who ultimately drink water polluted by development near the lake.
Khan did not just build a weekend house, according to Langewiesche. He (and soon his rich, powerful friends) defied zoning laws in his choice of location. Langewiesche wrote: “The attraction was not in the setting on the lake (there are prettier lakes nearby) but, rather, in the open defiance of the law – an opportunity for the display of personal power.”
iMediaEthics found that Langewiesche and The Atlantic fact checkers failed to square that account against the zoning laws and English-language court records that in fact show Khan’s home is perfectly legal.
On June 25, 1992, Pakistan’s Capital Development Authority and Islamabad police launched an operation against residents of Bani Gala to confront supposed encroachment on the lake. Police arrested more than 70 Bani Gala residents, and during a seven-hour standoff, crossfire between the police and the villagers killed two men. The lake development gained instant infamy.
In 1998, Dr Khan was among villagers who filed suits against the CDA, asking for an end to the construction ban or for separate land on which they could build. On June 25, 1999, Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbassi found in favor of Dr Khan and other petitioners. An order to bulldoze Khan’s and other villagers’ homes was dismissed.
iMediaEthics spoke with SM Zaffar, a senior lawyer and senator, who fought the case in the Islamabad High Court . He confirmed that “the government cleared the position that there is no issue and problem with the house of Khan in Bani Gala” in the case.
When contacted by iMediaEthics, Malik Farukh Nadeem was the teshildar – the senior revenue officer on the sale, purchase and transfer of land, he’s now Islamabad’s city magistrate. “The house of Dr A Q Khan is totally legal,” he said. “… The verdict of the court has legalised this whole area for all kinds of construction.”
Why did Langewiesche accuse Khan of illegality in Bani Gala? Khan told iMediaEthics that the author “never approached me to take my version” before publication – a basic practice of ethical journalism. In the same November 2005 report, Langewiesche also insinuated – by recounting a question to a source – that Khan may have “frequented prostitutes” while working in the Netherlands.
To add insult to the injury, Khan’s full name is misspelled throughout the 13,400-word report as Abdul Quadeer Khan instead of Abdul Qadeer Khan. Langewiesche corrected the spelling in The Atomic Bazaar, a 2007 book. Online, in The Atlantic’s archives, the error persists.
For its part, The Atlantic has stood by the 2005 article and also emphasised the impossibility of hearing Khan’s side of the story.
Natalie Raabe, spokesperson for The Atlantic said: “This article was carefully researched, reported, and fact-checked, and we stand by it. In reporting the story, Mr Langewiesche naturally attempted to interview Dr Khan. Dr Khan, however, was under house arrest and security services denied all access to him. To this point, Langewiesche writes in the article that Dr Khan was ‘…surrounded by guards and security agents, cut off from contact with the outside world, not allowed to read the newspapers or watch television, let alone to use the telephone or the Internet, and held beyond the reach of even the intelligence services of the United States.’ ”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 7th, 2012.
COMMENTS (33)
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If anyone has been conducting a character assassination it's the author of this article, Rhonda Roland Shearer. Shearer has persisted in hounding William Langewiesche since 2002 despite Langewiesche's significant body of important, balanced and dangerous reporting which has won him perhaps more accolades than any other long-form non-fiction writer of our time. In this instance all that Shearer has uncovered in this SEVEN YEAR OLD article is Khan's objection that his house was legally built. The legal and zoning issues around the monster house construction are evident even in Shearer's flimsy piece of reportage. How frequently is there an ARMED STANDOFF in North America subdivisions? And what is Shearer going to uncover next, was Khan wearing a white shirt rather than blue when he stole nuclear secrets? Stop the presses!
@observer i totally agreed man and i will say he not once but twice secrificed for pakistan jaye khan.
@Truth Seeker who writes "As if Indians drudged to discovered the “E=mC2”"
Please learn the difference between science and technology. E=MC2 is science and not technology. Science is theirs, technology is ours.
A Q Khan was not the only one who contributed or the only most important one.. His project at Kahuta was only involved in building centrifuges used in enriching uranium gas produced by PAEC which was running over twenty labs and projects in the nuclear program led by its chairman Munir Ahmad Khan. The bomb itself was designed, built and tested by PAEC, first in more than two dozen cold tests from 1983 onwards and then at Chaghi and Kharan in 1998. The plutonium program with the Khushab reactor complex and all other research and power reactors were also PAEC's work.
It is unbelievable that any Pakistani but the establishment propagandists would believe that A.Q. Khan acted on his own in transferring nuke technology to North Korea, Libya, Iran etc. It is a fact that not even a fly can buzz around in Pakistan without the knowledge and sanctioning by the agencies. How could Khan have done all this clandestine nuke proliferation without the knowledge and approval of the agencies? Khan is definitely a patriot who sacrificed his career and comfortable life in Europe to make Pakistan a nuclear power. It is sad that Musharaf made him a scapegoat, and forced him to accept all responsibility for proliferation, so that the real powers behind all the proliferation activities could go scot-free. I can understand why Khan feels so betrayed
AQ khan made the bomb which was a great service. He also broke professional ethics by transferring technology n he also acted against the pakistan constitution by exploiting the position he was in. I wonder how much money he made? Id love to know that :)
ET should also do its own fact-checking. Abdul Qadeer Khan's house was built before 1992. At the time of construction, it did violate the zoning law. The zoning was changed by a court order in favor of the residents in 1999. Post-facto changes in zoning legalized the construction, but that does not change the fact that AQ Khan violated zoning in the first place.
While the construction is now legalized, Langewiesche's article in The Atlantic is right to accuse Abdul Qadeer Khan of ‘brazen act of illegality’ as his Rawalpindi house was “built in blatant disregard of the law” at the time.
My uncle has a house next to AQ Khan's house. AQ khan's house is in a proper line, rather my uncles house is ahead into the lake which is also perfectly legal. AQ Khan's house was constructed on the residential area.
@ All those who anti Abdul Qadeer The so called All Knowing West also had us believing uptil now that they are winning the war on Afghanistan, which they are so obviously not. As for the intelligence, Americans had such accurate intelligence on Iraqs WMDs - wonder where it all went.
Come out of the 90s. The real father of nuclear bomb is Munir A Khan.
@narayana murthy: Hypocritical coming from you. Indian nukes are not "hard earned technology" either. Everything originates in the West at one point.
AQ Khan is our National Hero & will keep enjoying this status forever.........
@ishtiaer hussain: Shame on you. Mr. Khan is and ever will remain our hero and our greatest asset. Don't u think USA's scientists did the same to their jewish brathern in Israel. Wake up sleeping beauty. SHAME on you and any body who says things against the great KHAN.
Where are those big mouth politicians, renowned journalists and civil society stalwarts who wanted to see Mr. A. Q. Khan as the President of the country in appreciation of his services for the country, like India. Was it not all exploitation during movement against Pervez Musharraf. Mr. A.Q. Khan has already become a forgotten chapter of history of this country. Once he was a national hero but unfortunately not backed by any powerful lobby, peers, sardars, clan or a famous tribe and so he has to die as an unknown person may be a highly disputed one.
This is rich coming from someone who has confessed to be a part of the global nuclear proliferation mafia. He should be careful not to get into anymore hot water, Pakistan has been kind enough to him already.
@ishtiaer hussain: he didn't sell anything, he was made a scapegoat, how could he sell something like that on his own, he acted on the advice of his superiors and those superiors can't be questioned generally because they are very powerful, you know what i mean
@Akhtar u dont even know what you are talking about..
ya ya sure...we believe on you Mr.William Langewiesche and The Atlantic magazine....Disgusting..!!
we love you and beleive you
What this stupid man doesnt even know that there are plenty of people who could give Abdul Qadeer Khan any land or bungalow of his choice for what big favor he has done with this nation. This failed effort to malign could never be successful. Long live Abdul Qadeer Khan and long live pakistan.
AQ Khan is right. He is such a polite man, people use his cool behaviour against him.
What a waste of time story .. yup the courts have been making things legal which weren't supposed to be legal and CDA really lets all of this happen until it really is uncontrollable .. e.g. G-12 illegal constructions, D-12 illegal construction, F-12 illegal construction and loads and loads of more , the land will never be acquired by CDA now.. and someday it will become a flashpoint.
These are the heroes people worship
Khan is infact of hero of Pakistan and we know the conspiracies of western media so I suggest A.Q Khan not to worry about such rubbish stuff.
Why is there a media ban on AQ Khan?? Is it because he took on the military? The courts are a tool of armed forces. House arrest of khan is condemnable.
The man who sold our nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya is now our "National Hero". He and whoever helped him in exporting our hard-earned technology to "our Islamic brethrens" (who were all too eager to brief IAEA inspectors about the real source of the technology to the detriment of Pakistan) should be taken to the task.