I have read with interest the column of our well-known nuclear scientist Dr A. Q. Khan in which he has talked about revisiting December 1971 viz a viz the Fall of Dacca and parting of ways of East Pakistan that led to founding of Bangladesh. The scientist-turned-columnist has highlighted the various negative points that led to the defeat Pakistan suffered in December 1971 and has also offered very scathing comments against the Pakistan Army that are as blatantly one-sided as they are unrepresentative of the ground realities at the time. In the course of his column, Dr Khan has also mentioned his contributions in making Pakistan a nuclear power to deter the potent Indian threats to its integrity and security and went on to state that he had moved back to Pakistan on his own suggestion that was later duly endorsed by then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He says, thus, that he had made a great sacrifice for the nation and the country. I understand that the Ayub Khan government had sent a number of scientists and other professionals to foreign countries for training on scholarships. Dr A. Q. Khan was one of them who had stayed back somehow after completion of his training. So, if Dr Khan had returned to Pakistan, even at the great insistence of Mr Bhutto, he was surely only fulfilling an obligation to a country to which he belonged. I have been greatly dismayed on reading that Dr Khan actually regrets now his decision to return to Pakistan and "working on a meager salary every month" whereas his technological knowledge was worth billions of rupees. He has not taken into account the respect and love showered on him by millions of Pakistanis after the country had become the first nuclear power among the Muslim Ummah. -QAZI EHSANUL HAQ, Lahore, December 26