AQ Khan: Father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb jumps into politics

According to Mr. Zaman, the party has attracted more than a million people already, and most of them are young people.

“We have received tremendous response, especially on social media.” he says, adding that they are getting invites for Khan to speak, from all over the country. 

Though dozens of groups have popped up in support of the new party, none have more than 300 "likes." Facebook pages dedicated to Khan, however, have thousands of supporters. Qamar Ladakhi posted praise on one such page about the launch of the new political party, “in this present tense situation [we are in] need of [a] true, honest, virgin new leader, which I think,  [will] have been fulfilled by [the] coming of our national hero in politics.”

But others are not so positive. While some see his entry into politics as military backed, others see it as more of a compromise that he has made with the Pakistani military to keep his mouth shut.

“Every now and then AQ Khan pulls a rabbit out of the hat, as when he named some Army generals he had bribed with North Korean money,” Pervez Hoodbhoy, a Pakistani nuclear physicist and defense analyst, says. The military would rather see him busy with politics, he adds.

However, according Dr. Siddiqa, who has written two books about the Pakistani Army, Khan is part of a narrative of change the Pakistani security establishment is trying to create and take advantage of this moment in Pakistan. 

“I call it neo-feudalism. This is a new formula in Pakistan, introduced by [the security establishment], which is working on legitimizing faces like AQ Khan, Hafiz Saeed [head of a charity organization in Pakistan accused by India to be behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks], and other personalities who have had a negative reputation in the past,” says Siddiqa.

“There has to be ‘institutional support’ behind him,” says Siddiqa, pointing to the fact that the transfer of nuclear technology from Pakistan to North Korea, for example, "was not only for monetary reasons, but also strategic reasons.”

Pakistan's credibility 

Internationally, observers feel that Khan's entry into politics adds to an already long list of serious doubts about Pakistan's credibility and its status as a responsible nuclear state.  

"He should have been treated as a criminal, but he enjoyed luxury even after his house arrest. He regularly writes opinion pieces in the local newspapers and enjoys life as a popular public figure," says Christine Fair, a Pakistan expert at Georgetown University in Washington.

She is skeptical that Khan will create any impact in the Pakistani elections next year. "With Imran Khan, there were similar expectations, and we saw his popularity surge – especially whenever there was a military-civilian row in Pakistan. But even that has died down," she says, indicating that there may be military behind these new players in the Pakistani politics. She says that the military has been unable to create a credible third force as of yet.  "I don't see AQ Khan becoming that prominent," she adds. 

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