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No big security for AQ Khan at Aga Khan

By Urooj Zia

KARACHI: Controversial nuclear scientist Dr A Q Khan has apparently been shifted to a location outside the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH).

Khan was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and was reportedly admitted to AKUH for treatment. A spokesperson for the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that some tests concerning Khan's surgery had been carried out by AKUH staff Friday, and that further decisions would be taken by doctors involved with his treatment.

A visit to the AKUH Friday night, however, strongly indicated that Khan was not among the hundreds of inpatients currently registered at the hospital.

"Dr A Q Khan is not admitted here - he hasn't been assigned a bed here yet!" said a resident at one of the departments at the hospital. A search of the database produced no results either, although this could in turn indicate that Khan had been registered under a different name to preserve anonymity. However, the above-mentioned visit to AKUH failed to uncover any signs of Khan being there; security arrangements had not been beefed up at all, and none of the inpatients or their attendants had noticed anything unusual.

"We've been here for the past five days, because our father is admitted here," said two men who were lying on a blanket in a corner. "What?" they exclaimed. "You mean Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist is here?"

A similar reaction came from others. "We did hear about this on the news," said another inpatient's family. "But we don't see anything here to that effect."

It could be said that this much goes in favour of the AKU administration that had security and patient privacy for its (alleged) high profile visitor under such good control that no regular patients were inconvenienced just because "the father of nuclear Pakistan" was scheduled to undergo surgery there.

Nonetheless, the hush-hush atmosphere at the hospital did come across as a tad suspicious. No one at the hospital was willing to speak about or comment on the issue, and this correspondent was shadowed by the AKUH security after the purpose of the visit became known. The resident on-call urologist flatly refused to talk to Daily Times.

According to the Security Control Room at the hospital, "no one at all" was allowed to visit Khan - not army personnel, not the regular AKUH security, "especially not the press," they added, claiming that "even Khan's closest family is being put through excessive scrutiny before being allowed in to see him, and the only four to five intelligence officers have been allowed in thus far."

It was difficult to see however, how any of the abovementioned measures could be implemented with the current security standards, where visitors to the hospital are allowed to enter and roam around at will without being questioned about the purpose of their visit.

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