KARACHI, Feb 18: What is happening on the international scene with regard to Iraq should be viewed as a paradigm which may be replicated in other parts of the world, once it is successfully played out in the Middle East.

So said a defence analyst and columnist at an event which was held on Tuesday evening to pay tributes to Dr AQ Khan. The event was organized by the Pictorial News Review magazine.

Brig A R Siddiqui said the Pakistanis should not think that what was happening to Iraq could not happen to Pakistan.

“Pakistan is being portrayed, wrongly of course, as a threat to the West,” he said. The ‘Bush Doctrine’ held that immediate action could be taken against all the countries viewed as potential threat, he added.

The Pakistanis should never think that nuclear shield was the last word in security, he said. “Let us not sit pretty behind the nuclear shield.”

Brig Siddiqui said it seemed that Pakistan had lost faith in the capabilities of its conventional forces. “And the spirit of Jihad seems to have vanished.”

In his speech, Lt Gen Moinuddin Haider, the chief guest, said the Western media had time and again initiated propaganda campaigns against Dr A Q Khan, “what Pakistanis should ensure is that they don’t become part of such campaign.”

The former interior minister said Pakistan had not been given nuclear technology. “Because nobody has gifted us this technology, nobody can ask us to cap it.”

He said some Western media organizations had wrongly said that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons were in danger of falling into unsafe hands. “I was until recently a part of the Nuclear Command Authority and I assure you that the weapons are in extremely safe hands.”

The vice chancellor of Karachi University, Prof Zafar Saeed Saify, described Dr A Q Khan’s endeavours in the fields of education and health. He announced that Dr A Q Khan Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering was ready for inauguration.

Zahid Malik, on the occasion, said what needed to be explored was why Dr A Q Khan, despite his dedication, was dissociated from the country’s nuclear programme. “This is a serious issue which should be looked into from all possible angles.”

Mr Malik said Dr A Q Khan’s removal from the nuclear scene seemed to be part of a larger design which was soon to be unveiled in South Asia.

M.A. Zuberi, the editor of Business Recorder newspaper, Jamiluddin Ali, Qutubuddin Aziz, Mamnoon Husain, a former governor of Sindh, Sajjad Mir, the resident editor of daily Nawa-i-Waqt, M. Sharif Chaudhary, and Shaukat Iqbal also spoke on the occasion.

Hulail Naqvi presented the vote of thanks. Mahmudul Aziz was the compere.