Abdus Salam's son flays Pak hypocrisy
The contribution of Abdus Salam, a Nobel laureate whose work had a significant contribution in the recent success of the 'God particle' project, continues to be ignored by Pakistan, where he was treated "hypocritically" due to his Ahmadiya background, his son said today.
Abdus Salam, is ignored and even scorned in Pakistan, whose citizenship he continued to hold until his death in 1996, despite offers of citizenship from India and other countries.
Ahmad Salam, the London-based investment banker son of the Nobel laureate, said: "There is a consistent hypocrisy in Pakistan. When it suited them, they took advice from him on nuclear and science issues, but would never be seen to engage with him officially".
"Officials from Pakistan's atomic and other agencies would travel all over the world to seek my father's advice behind closed doors, but officially they never engaged with him. I was told that when some cabinet ministers wanted to attend his funeral, they were told not to", he said.
The 'ultimate insult', he said, was when the word 'Muslim' on his father's tomb in Pakistan, which initially read 'First Muslim Nobel Laureate' was erased on the orders of the local magistrate.
The highest official representative for the funeral was the local police inspector.
Pakistan's constitution was amended in 1974 to declare that Ahmadiyas were not considered Muslims under the country's law.
All Pakistani passport applicants are required to sign a section saying the Ahmadi faith's founder, Hadrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who died in 1908, was an 'impostor' and that his followers are 'non-Muslims'.
Ahmad
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