The father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb has vigorously defended the programme as sparing his country the fate of Iraq or Libya, amid signs that Islamabad is ramping up its weapons capacities. Writing in Newsweek magazine, Abdul Qadeer Khan said that Pakistan's nuclear weapons had prevented war with historic rival India, which he accused of pursuing a "massive programme" due to ambitions of superpower status.
"Don't overlook the fact that no nuclear-capable country has been subjected to aggression or occupied, or had its borders redrawn. Had Iraq and Libya been nuclear powers, they wouldn't have been destroyed in the way we have seen recently," Khan said. Khan also argued that Bangladesh would not have won independence in 1971 if Pakistan had nuclear weapons. India supported Bangladesh's independence, which came after a nine-month struggle that was harshly put down by Pakistani forces.
Khan lashed out at Pakistanis who contend that the country, which suffers grinding poverty and receives billions of dollars in US assistance each year, cannot afford its nuclear programme. "The propaganda about spending exorbitant sums on the nuclear programme circulated by ignorant, often foreign-paid, Pakistanis has no substance," he wrote. But Khan also said that Pakistan's "incompetent and ignorant rulers" never devoted enough resources to development, which he argued should have been easier due to the protection ensure by nuclear weapons.
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