HYDERABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has urged federal government to name all nuclear installations, including the principal one at Kahuta, after Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and also issue a commemorative coin in his memory.

He was speaking at a press conference at the venue of the party’s ‘Shehri-Haqooq rally’, which was postponed on account of Dr Khan’s demise here on Sunday. Instead, MQM-P leaders, activists and supporters held funeral prayers in absentia for Dr Khan.

Dr Siddiqui described Dr Khan as a patriotic son of the soil who had made Pakistan invincible. He said Dr Khan was a guarantor of Pakistan’s future; his demise had plunged the entire nation in grief. His name alone was the answer to the country’s enemy in the arena of nuclear arsenal, he added.

The MQM-P leader said that no one had brought Dr Khan to Pakistan rather he himself decided to dedicate his talent and energy to making Pakistan a nuclear power after its arch enemy India armed itself with nuclear weapon and threatened Pakistan’s security.

“He bequeathed every word of his knowledge to this country along with his dream but I want to ask a question from the state: whether he was given the respect and treatment this patriotic son of Pakistan truly deserved,” said Dr Siddiqui.

He proposed that monuments be built in his memory right from Karachi to Khyber, pointing out that many buildings and airports had been named after political personalities.

“We should remember Dr Khan in a befitting manner so that no one can say that we forget our benefactors,” he said.Senior deputy convener Amir Khan, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, Wasim Akhtar and other party leaders were also present at the press conference.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2021