Project-706
Encyclopedia
Project-706, also known as Project-726 or as the Kahuta Project, was a science effort codename of a project conducted during the Cold War
and Russo-Afghan War
whose objective was to develop Pakistan
' first atomic weapon. The mainstream goal of the project was the development of an atomic bomb using High-enriched uranium technology
. Despite the aim and focus of the project, Pakistani scientists and engineers gained expertise in the use of reactor-grade plutonium, and successfully produced weapon-grade plutonium by the early 1980s. The project was launched after the secession of East Pakistan
as a result of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
and Pakistan War in Bangladesh
. It was an effort which was led by Pakistan. Project-706 refers specifically to the period from 1974–1983 when it was under the control of former prime minister
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
, and later on under the military administration of Major-General Zahid Ali Akbar Khan of the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers
.
The project's roots lay in scientists' fears since 1967 that India was also investigating nuclear weapons of its own
. Developing nuclear technology for Pakistan was a mainstream goal and a dream of Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who initiated the scientific research in 1972.
Before the launching of Project-706 in 1974, the initial scientific research, starting from 1972, was directed and organized by renowned Pakistani scientist Abdus Salam
. From 1974, the research was led by engineers Munir Ahmad Khan
of PAEC and Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
of KRL. Time magazine has called Project-706 Pakistan's equivalent of the United States' Manhattan Project
. The project cost US$450 million (raised by both Libya
and Saudia Arabia) which was approved by Bhutto in 1972.
Project-706 led to the creation of multiple production and research sites that operated in extreme secrecy and ambiguity
. As well as research and development, the project was also charged with gathering intelligence on Indian nuclear efforts
. The Project was honourably disbanded from its service when Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
(PAEC) carried out the first cold test of a miniature nuclear device on 11 March 1983. Scientists and Military officers who participated in the Project were given higher promotion in their respective services, and conferred with high civil decorations
by the Government of Pakistan
.
Liaqat Ali Khan. The research in nuclear technology was encouraged by Mark Oliphant
who, in 1948, wrote a letter to Muhammad Ali Jinnah
to engage research in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. According to Mark Oliphant, no other Muslim scientist was available in the subcontinent other than Dr. Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry
who could prove useful for the newly born country in the field of Nuclear Technology. A letter was directed to Chaudhry, who migrated to Pakistan in 1948 and established High-Tension Laboratory in 1952. On December 8, 1953, U.S.
President
Dwight Eisenhower launched the Atoms for Peace
program, where Pakistan was amongst the earliest countries to sign the treaty. On December 8, 1953, the Pakistani media
welcomed the proposed peaceful use of atomic energy, but Foreign minister Sir Zaf-rulla Khan
stated that Pakistan did not have a policy towards the atom bomb. In 1956, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
(PAEC) was founded and its first chairman was Dr. Nazir Ahmad
, and Science Advisor to the Prime minister, Dr. Salimuzzaman Siddiqui
served agency's first Technical (member)
. In 1958, the PAEC drafted a proposal to the military government of Field Marshal Ayub Khan for the acquisition of either the Canadian
NRX
heavy water reactor or the CP-5
reactor, at the Argonne National Laboratory
. However, Ayub Khan's Military government vetoed the proposal.
On March 1958, Nazir Ahmad made another proposal to the chairman of the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation
(PIDC) for setting up a heavy water nuclear plant
with a production capacity of 50 kg of heavy water per day at Multan in conjunction with a planned fertilizer factory. However, the PIDC did not act on the PAEC's proposal. Field Marshal
Ayub Khan rejected the proposal and instead transferred Dr. Nazir Ahmad immediately to the Federal Bureau of Statistics
. On March 1959, the PAEC entered an agreement with United States Atomic Energy Commission
, in which the United States agreed to provide a 5MW pool-type reactor. In 1960, a bureaucrat named Dr. Ishrat Hussain Usmani
succeeded Ahmad as chairman of the PAEC. Usmani played a pivotal role in the construction and development of Karachi Nuclear Power Plant by setting up Uranium
and Plutonium
exploration committees throughout the country. Many Nuclear research institutes were also established, and work was begun to set up surveying the suitable sites for nuclear power plants.
In 1965, Science Advisor to the Government, Dr. Abdus Salam
traveled to United States
to sign an agreement with the Government of United States to provide a research reactor in Rawalpindi. In United States, Salam also held meeting with renowned Edward Durell Stone
, where he signed another contract. It was under Abdus Salam's leadership that Stone designed and then led construction of a nuclear research institute in Nilore.
The same year, the PAEC entered another agreement with General Electric of Canada
to build a 137MW Nuclear power plant at Karachi. In 1967, Abdus Salam urged Field Marshal Ayub Khan to acquire a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility from the United States, however Ayub Khan and his Finance minister
Muhammad Shoaib
, had denied Salam's request.
After the 1965 India-Pakistan War
, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Foreign minister at that time, began to lobby for a nuclear weapons option. In October 1965, Bhutto visited Vienna
to attend the International Atomic Energy Agency
meeting. While there, he met with Munir Ahmad Khan
, and other Pakistani scientists working at IAEA. Pakistani IAEA scientists briefed Bhutto on the rapid development of Indian nuclear programme
. According to Munir Ahmad Khan, the nuclear facility
at Trombay
consisted of a plutonium production reactor, a reprocessing plant, and other facilities associated to weapon production. Bhutto quickly arranged a meeting with Ayub Khan. After this meeting, Ayub Khan remained unconvinced, and rejected the proposal made by Munir Ahmad Khan. Khan notified Bhutto immediately and told him about what had happened. After learning what happened, Bhutto famously replied, "Don't worry. Our turn will come. In 1967, a team of Pakistani scientists, under Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry
, produced the first batch of radioisotopes at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology. The research in nuclear technology at PINSTECH began to pick up speed, and Abdus Salam began to supervise Pakistani research institutes.
In 1968, research on theoretical physics had began at the newly created Institute of Physics (IP). The IP was established in the small department of physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University (as of today, the IP and the department of physics has been expanded).
Pakistani theoretical physicists, such as Faheem Hussain
, Peter Rotolli, John Mumtaz, Fayyazuddin, Ishfaq Ahmad, Masud Ahmad, had began research on theoretical and quantum physics. Faheem Hussain became the first physicist at IP to published research analysis on string theory
. Later on, the Relativity Group under Fayyazuddin carried out work on the Bethe-Bloch theory. In 1969, Raziuddin Siddiqui established Einstein's Physics Group (EPG) and carried out experiments on general relativity
and quantum mechanics
.
were held in Pakistan under the Military government of General Yahya Khan. The electoral results triggered the Bangladesh Liberation War
in East Pakistan
. Meanwhile, the political situation in West Pakistan was further deteriorating, and tension momentarily grew between the East and West Pakistan. A military action in East Pakistan called Operation Searchlight
opened a series of bloody counter-insurgency operations led by the defected Bengali dissidents of Pakistan Armed Forces. Later, India intervened in the conflict as covert operations were successfully led by the Indian intelligence agencies.
This was followed by Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
, a war in the western front. Pakistan, now fighting on both fronts, lost the war after only 13 days. The war with India and East-Pakistan had caused the collapse of the military government
of Yahya Khan, and dissolution of United Pakistan. The conflict in East-Pakistan ended as the Military government in East.
On the western front, the central military government of General Yahya Khan also collapsed and lost control over the country. The Pakistani economy was further crippled as an economical outcome of the war. The Indian Navy
had severely damaged and destroyed main sea ports of Pakistan, and the business, social, and economic infrastructure of Karachi was demolished during the war. On December 16, 1971, East Pakistan seceded as the independent state of Bangladesh.
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
, Pakistan had lost a significant amount of territory as well as geopolitical and economic influence in South-Asia
. The size of the Military of Pakistan and the civil population dramatically and exponentially decreased. Pakistan lost half its Navy
, a quarter of its Air Force
and a third of its Army
as well as losing millions of citizens to newly created Bangladesh.
Under pressured by the public and media, Military Government's Combatant Headquarters, the GHQ, surrendered to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came into political power, governmental nuclear organizations came under control of Bhutto. In early January 1972, the year after the war, the ISI
learned that India was close to developing an atomic bomb. Bhutto called Munir Ahmad Khan from Vienna and immediately removed Ishrat Hussain Usmani
as the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Dr. Abdus Salam, Science Advisor, managed a meeting of senior scientists and officials of PAEC. On January 20, 1972, at Multan, Abdus Salam managed a meeting of senior scientists of PAEC, where Bhutto asked Nuclear engineer Munir Ahmad Khan of the International Atomic Energy Agency
to take the charge of the nuclear weapons program.
began to initiate the work on nuclear weapons. Abdus Salam called two of his students, Riazuddin and Masud Ahmad
working at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics
(ICTP) to report to Munir Ahmad Khan. Theoretical physicists at Institute of Physics (IP) of Quaid-e-Azam University began to report back to Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Theoretical physicists at IP formed the "Theoretical Physics Group (TPG)", which was mandated to develop the design of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Dr. Abdus Salam played an integral role in TPG, and had done the groundbreaking work for the "Theoretical Physics Group", which was initially headed by Salam until 1974. The TPG took the research in Fast neutron calculations—the key to calculations of critical mass and weapon detonation. The TPG began to report directly to dr. Abdus Salam and research was undertaken under his supervision. The TPG examined the problems of neutron diffraction
, the theory of Simultaneity
, hydrodynamics, and what kind of and how much fissile material and reflectors would be used. In 1973, Bhutto appointed Raziuddin Siddiqui
as Technical member of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, and made him responsible for the preparation of its charter. At there, Raziuddin Siddiqui, a theoretical physicist, established the Mathematical Physics Group (MPG) that took charge to carried out research in calculations on MC Integrals, cross section theory
, critical mass theory
, and mathematics
involved in general theory of fission reactions
.
Educated at the Argonne National Laboratory
, Munir Ahmad Khan and Abdus Salam called a meeting to initiate a work on an atomic weapon in March of 1974 at the Pinstech Institute. The meeting was convened by Abdus Salam and Riazuddin of the Theoretical Physics Group (TPG), Asghar Qadir and Munir Ahmad Rashid of Mathematical Physics Group (MPG), Ishfaq Ahmad and Samar Mubarakmand of Nuclear Physics Group (NPG), and Hafeez Qureshi and dr. Zaman Sheikh of Wah Group Scientists (WGS). During the meeting, the word "bomb" was never used, instead the academic scientists preferred to use scientific research rationale. There, the scientists decided to develop an 'implosion
' over the 'gun type fission device
citing economy in the use of fissile material. The Plutonium and Uranium exploration committees, under Ishfaq Ahmad and Ahsan Mubarak, made discoveries of natural raw plutonium ores and Natural uranium
deposits in the different areas of country. The Nuclear Physics Group, formed in 1967, began to work to under Ishfaq Ahmad
. The NPG analysis the problems on the converting 238U
into 239Pu
. In 1980s the NPG successfully produced the 10 kg of uranium. The NPG also manufactured and reprocessed the Plutonium isotopes
at the New Labs, PARR-Reactor.
In March 1974, in a meeting led by Abdus Salam and Munir Ahmad Khan, constituted a small directorate, code name Wah Group Scientists (WGS). Its members contained Hafeez Qureshi, director-general of Radiation Isotope Application Division (RIAD), and Dr. Zaman Sheikh, a chemical engineer
from DESTO
. The Wah Group Scientists began research on high precision
mechanical and chemical components, physics calculation, high explosives and triggering mechanism. The same month of March, Abdus Salam and Munir Ahmad Khan sat up a plant to manufacture fissile explosive lenses. In April 1974, Abdus Salam formed another group "Laser Physics Group" (LPG), headed by dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan
. The Laser Physics Group was charged to carry out research and discover process to separate NU
into EU
and DU
. The LPG used advanced laser technologies, and examined the problems in molecular isotopic of separation of 235U
—whether to use infrared or Ultra violet lasers— and Electromagnetic radiation
and atomic spectroscopy
— what would be its wavelength
and how atoms separated and ionized.
In the early of 1974, under the advise of Abdus Salam, PAEC formed another group, "Fast Neutron Physics Group", under Samar Mubarakmand
. The Fast Neutron Physics Group (FNPG) took research in and examined the problems in the science of neutron, a subatomic particle
. The Fast Neutron Physics Group calculated the numerical ranges of neutrons — how much power
would be produced by the neutrons — and the efficiency of neutrons
— determined the number of neutrons would be produced — in a device. The Fast Neutron Physics Group discovered the treatment process for the Fast, thermal and slow neutrons, and examined the behaviour of Neutron flux
es, and Neutron source
s in particle accelerator installed at PINTECH. The Fast Neutron Physics Group used the R-process
to determined the neutrons' behaviour in the fissionable device.
In the end of 1974, Pakistan's Parliament passed a bill with majority declaring Ahmadis
to be non-Muslims after which Dr. Abdus Salam, a senior scientist, left Pakistan for Great Britain in protest. Now, in the absence of Salam, Munir Ahmad Khan continued the organizations. The Nuclear Engineering Division, under Bashiruddin Mahmood first sat up the 238U
production facility and the construction began under Munir Ahmad Khan's guidance and direction.
, near the Pakistan's Eastern Border in the Sindh Province. The nuclear test was a surprise and caused a great alarm of the Government of Pakistan
. On May 19 of 1974, in a news conference, Bhutto said: India's nuclear program is designed to intimidate Pakistan and establish "hegemony in the subcontinent". He closed the news conference by saying "even if we have to eat grass, we will make nuclear bombs".
Around this time, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
, a German-trained metallurgical engineer and nuclear weapon technologist
, was having a distinguished career in the URENCO. While at URENCO, Dr. Khan was considered a senior translator at the facility and had access into facilities most confidential sites.
After the India's nuclear test, Khan wrote a letter to Bhutto in which he explained that he had expertise in centrifuge-based uranium enrichment technologies at URENCO in Belgium. Bhutto directed the letter to Munir Ahmad Khan to arrange a meeting with Dr. A.Q. Khan. In October 1974, Munir A. Khan sent Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood to The Netherlands to interview Dr. Qadeer Khan. In December 1974, Khan returned to Pakistan to meet Prime Minister Ali Bhutto and PAEC Chairman Ahmad Khan, where he tried to convince Bhutto to adopt his uranium route rather than plutonium route. Bhutto did not agree to halt the Plutonium route but decided on the spot to place Khan in charge of the uranium program, which would be a parallel nuclear program.
Dr. Khan initially worked under Bashiruddin Mahmood. But on 19 April 1976, Qadeer Khan wrote to Munir Ahmad Khan expressing that he was not satisfied and that he wanted to work independently. The letter was forwarded to Prime minister Secretariat. Dr. A.Q. Khan, with sport from Prime Minister Bhutto, formed the Engineering Research Laboratories, which later became known as the Kahuta Research Laboratories
(KRL). As PAEC, the KRL was under direct control of Bhutto and A.Q. Khan’s had reported directly to Prime Minister Bhutto. Dr. A.Q. Khan disliked the idea of PAEC getting involved in ERL project, instead he favoured Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers
to lead the program. The work on ERL was initiated by Bhutto, and the assignment of was assigned to Corps of Engineers.
Per recommendation of A.Q. Khan, the Engineer-in-Chief
of Corps of Engineers selected Brigadier Zahid Ali Akbar
, who is renowned for the construction of The GHQ; headquarter of Pakistan Army's Combatant Command, as the head of the project. Brigadier Zahid Ali Akbar led the accelerated construction of the facility, and began to co-administrator the program, alongside with Bhutto. Impressed by his work at Kahuta, Bhutto gave him additional and secretive assignments to be initiated for both PAEC and KRL. An office was sat up in Prime minister Secretariat for Brigadier Akbar, and kept Bhutto informed about the construction of the ERL.
Throughout the years, A.Q. Khan established an administrative proliferation network through Dubai to smuggle URENCO nuclear technology to Khan Research Laboratories. He then established Pakistan
's gas-centrifuge program
which was also loosely based on the URENCO's Zippe-type centrifuge.
was personally selected which Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan claimed in his columns. As the site was selected, Prime Minister Bhutto assigned this project to Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers to lead construction of the facility. Brigadier Zahid Ali Akbar Khan, who himself is a system engineer, was serving at the rank as of one-star rank of Brigadier
at the time when he was selected by Corps of Engineers, per Bhutto's request. Bhutto ordered Chief of Army Staff General Tikka Khan
that Akbar be promoted to two-star major-general, as it was felt that the title "general" would sway with the academic scientists working on the confidential projects. Now a two-star general, Zahid Ali Akbar Khan led the constructions of both Metallurgical Laboratory
in Wah Cannt (ML), and uranium enrichment plant in Kahuta,.
as the head of the committee. Mubashir, with Munir Ahmad Khan, stricken the policy that prevented the nuclear proliferation at first. Before the arrival of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, Mubashir was encouraging academic scientists to developed the classified technologies ingeniously. Hassan supervised the construction of the nuclear research laboratories, facilities and testing laboratories throughout the country. With little influence of military, Hassan was proponent of establishing nuclear facilities. Scientists were directly reporting to Dr. Hassan and other civil officers, but final report was submitted to Hassan, who would late brief Bhutto over the progress. After the arrival of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, Dr. Khan tried to work Dr. Hassan and Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, but was dissatisfied with constant involvement of Dr. Hassan, who would continued to look at Dr. Khan's suspected activities in Europe and elsewhere. In 1975, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan succeeded to meet with Bhutto in private and requested a military department to supervise his work rather than dr. Hassan's supervision. Throughout the 1975 until 1977, the military had little presence at first and only involved in a small scale programme with Abdul Qadeer Khan. However, this civil committee was disbanded by General Zia-ul-Haq as he removed Dr. Mubashir Hassan and placed him in Central Jail Ralwalpindi with Bhutto in 1977. The same year, the military took control of the programme and military, for the first time, was involved in every aspect of the programmes. In 1979, after the removal of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Major-General Akbar assumed the command of Project-706 on September 26. A military engineer by profession, Khan administratively established military engineer groups in his Corps. He led the quick construction of the Electrical and Vacuum Laboratory (EVL) as well as building the city of Kahuta. Throughout the years, Major-General Akbar served as the director-general the Kahuta facility. By the 1983, Akbar was promoted to three-star rank of lieutenant general
as the military wanted a suitable administrator who understood the scientific needs of the project comprehensively. The same year, Akbar was also given command of the Pakistani Army Corps of Engineers in order to recruit senior people whose cooperation were required.
Lieutenant-General Akbar established a military unit to provide logistic support to both PAEC and KRL. Known as "Special Works Development (SDW)", responsible for the rapid construction of facilities, consisting Brigadier Muhammad Sarfaraz. In 1977, Prime minister Bhutto established a military committee to maintain military administrative leadership in project. The Military Engineering Committee (MEC) was led by Major-General Zahid Ali Akbar, and had Major-General Anis Ahmad — OC
of Central Works Organization, Air Vice-Marshal
(Major-General) Michael John O'Brian
—AOC of Sargodha Air Force Base
, Air Vice-Marshal (Major-General) Eric Gordan Hall
—AOC
of Chaklala Air Force Base
, Brigadier Muhammad Sarfaraz—CO
of Special Works Development, and Colonel Zulfikar Ali Khan—CO of 17th FWO Regiment
.
Meanwhile, A.Q. Khan then established a proliferation network through Dubai to smuggle URENCO nuclear technology to Khan Research Laboratories. A.Q. Khan smuggled sensitive vacuum and technical equipments necessary for the enrichment technology. He then established Pakistan
's gas-centrifuge program
based on the URENCO's Zippe-type centrifuge.
Dr. Khan was a uranium technologist who brought with him knowledge of gas centrifuge technologies that he had learned through his position at the classified URENCO uranium enrichment plant in the Netherlands. After General Akbar, Khan was put in charge of building, equipping and operating the Kahuta facility. Dr. Qadeer Khan took over the centrifuge part of the Uranium Enrichment Program from Munir Ahmad Khan, while all other uranium related steps to making uranium gas for enrichment remained under Munir Ahmad Khan
's responsibility. Bhutto also continued to retain Chairman of PAEC Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan
as the head of Plutonium production, nuclear fuel cycle, uranium exploration, processing and conversion, nuclear weapons development and reactor programs.
was aware of the United States, Soviet Union
, and other foreign intelligence agencies trying to put in spies. According to the Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmad
, United States had the ground intelligence and ISI has arrested a number of Soviet and American spies following the 1976. Brigadier Imatiaz also claimed in an interview with News International
that he had conducted the military operation "Rising Sun" in 1979 that successfully thwarted a CIA plot to target Pakistani nuclear scientists and engineers who were closely associated with Pakistan's nuclear programme. The operation concluded with the arrest and a life imprisonment of a Pakistani CIA agent, Rafiq Safi Munshi, who himself was working as a nuclear engineer at KANUPP
, tried to wire classified atomic documents to the American consulate in Karachi
. The operation ended with a declaration of a few undercover CIA agents and U.S. diplomats as personae non gratae and their return.
On 26 June 1979, Pakistan's ISI
foiled an attempt by the French Ambassador to Pakistan, Le Gourrierce and his First Secretary, Jean Forlot who were on a surveillance mission to Kahuta Research Laboratories
nuclear complex on 26 June 1979. Both were intercepted and their cameras and other sensitive equipment were confiscated. Documents that were intercepted later showed that the two were recruited by the CIA.
After the successful outcomes of Operation Opera
, Israel planned an attack on the suspected nuclear facility in early 1980s. The M.I.
and Air Intelligence (AI) of Pakistan learned the Israeli attempted operation. The Israeli Air Force's fighter jets flew close to Pakistan's northern border. However, due to alert, the PAF
responded with an aggressive retaliation. The PAF's aggressor squadron
's jets belonging to No. 11 Squadron Arrows intercepted
the IAF jets and gained a missile lock on one of the Israeli jets. The Israeli jets were panicked and surprised by the resistance given by the PAF jets, and therefore pulled back immediately. Soon after the incident, Munir Ahmad Khan met with Raja Ramanna
of India. A high-level Pakistani mission was sent to Vienna where both country had signed an agreement promising not to attack or assist a foreign power to attack each others facilities.
Natural uranium consists of only 99.3% 238U
and only 0.7% 235U
, but only the latter is fissile. The rarer but chemically identical 235U
must be physically separated
from the more plentiful isotope. This process of uranium enrichment into weapon-grade is extremely difficult and sensitive, and requires advanced technology. However, A.Q. Khan's efforts
helped him achieve this by illegally acquiring technology.
Before Khan's arrival, a Coordination Board was set up to manage and supervise the Projects' uranium-route. Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood of the Nuclear Engineering Division, was made the project director. Dr. Khan took over the project from Mahmood as he wanted to work alone. This Board was composed of A G N Kazi
, Ghulam Ishaq Khan
, Agha Shahi
, and Munir Ahmad Khan. The Pakistan Defence Forces also had established their own boards to support the engineering research activities throughout the country. However, the ERL continued to remain under the overall supervision of PAEC till 1977 after which it was separated and made independent, but throughout the subsequent years and the 1980s, Munir Ahmad Khan continued to serve as a member and later as head of the Uranium enrichment project's Coordination Board. The PAEC sat its own uranium enrichment program to developed advanced version for uranium fuel. The PAEC had worked on the most challenging method of isotope separation Molecular laser isotopes
, Gaseous
and Thermal diffusion
. All of these methods were developed and supervised under Shaukat Hameed Khan
of the Laser Physics Group (LPG) and Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood of the Nuclear Engineering Division (NED). At PAEC, the Laser Physics Group, under the direction of Shaukat Hameed Khan, developed the MLIS
process for the isotopes separation. Meanwhile, the PAEC continued its support to Engineering Research Laboratories. The PAEC produced 6UF
and provided its feedstock to KRL while the PAEC had used 6UF
in both of their developed Gas and Thermal diffusion methods in their enrichment laboratories. In 1978, the PAEC had eliminated the MLIS method as secondary process to to its difficulty and complexity. A.Q. Khan's stolen gas centrifuges also became a reason that PAEC was not supported to continue its work on MLIS method as secondary process. However, the PAEC did not completely abandoned the work on MLIS method instead it was continued for the research purposes only under Shaukat Hameed Khan. In 1982, the MLIS method was used to separate plutonium isotopes at the Neutron Activation Analysis Laboratory of the PINSTECH. For this, Shaukat Hameed Khan was conferred with a civil award by the president.
The A.Q. Khan's stolen classified drawings and documents of the centrifuge machines were incomplete and uncorrected, as they were identified by Ghulam Dastagir Alam, a theoretical physicist heading the centrifuge team. Initially, the KRL scientists suffered many setbacks and were unable to developed the machine. While visiting at the Physics Hall of Qau, Alam met with Tasnim Shah
, a professor of mathematics at Qau. Alam introduced Shah with KRL scientists where they examined the problems. It was followed by forming Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Division. The CFD Division analyzed the problems of the SWU — measuring the amount of work done by the centrifuge, and Centrifugal acceleration — how many rpm would a machine covered, and Rotational dynamics — what would be its appropriate rotational speed
. Tasneem Shah gained fame when he independently discovered the problems, and assisted KRL scientists to developed the powerful version of the centrifuges.
As the problems were resolved, Dr. Khan began the enrichment operations. By the start of 1983, the KRL had developed around 1500-2900 gas centrifuge
s loosely based on Urenco Group. It was dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan's effort that on 4 June 1978, scientists working in the Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL) succeed in enriching uranium by Electromagnetic isotope separation of 238U
and 235U
isotopes at the then-Pakistan Air Force
controlled-Chaklala Air Force Base Centrifuge Laboratory (CACL). Dr. Ghulam Dastagir Alam, who co-headed the isotope separation project, informed dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. Dr. Khan immediately went to GHQ to informed General Zia-Ul-Haq
.
By the end of 1983, ERL/KRL
under Dr. Qadeer Khan
, claimed to carried out the first cold test of a single nuclear device but it seems that this effort did not prove to be successful since the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
led by Munir Ahmad Khan had carried out the first cold test of a working nuclear device on 11 March 1983.
. On many different occasions, Dr. Khan had objected the Munir Ahmad Khan's work, and unsuccessfully tried to remove Munir Khan from the research and development as A.Q. Khan wanted the government to focus on his method only. After the dismissal of Bhutto Government
, Lieutenant-General Zahid Ali Akbar became the in charge of the Project, supervising both PAEC and KRL research developmental work. General Zahid Ali Akbar led the accelerated construction of a plutonium reactor in Rawalpindi which was designed by Hafeez Qureshi. In 1981, the reactor went critical under Iqbal Hussain Qureshi. The reactor was put on test in early 1980s and was processed at ~50% efficiency; the reactor produced the first batch of weapon-grade plutonium.
In 1976, A.Q. Khan was unable to convince Bhutto to halt the Plutonium route. Against the wishes of Khan, the work on plutonium separation process and conversion of uranium into plutonium was taking place under Munir Ahmad Khan. Meanwhile, a team of nuclear chemists of Nuclear Chemistry Division (NCD), under Dr. Iqbal Hussain Qureshi, considered the problem of how plutonium could be separated from uranium when its chemical properties were not known. Nuclear chemists were able to find a separation process, and balanced the first equation for the nuclear weapon at PAEC. The PAEC had work on the difficult and most challenging plutonium separation process which was developed by both Ishfaq Ahmad and Iqbal Hussain Qureshi. At New Labs, the PAEC produced the reactor-grade plutonium isotopes, and reprocessed them into weapon-grade. The breakthrough with plutonium experiment was at the PINSTECH Laboratory by Iqbal Hussain Qureshi of NCD and Ishfaq Ahmad of Nuclear Physics Group (NPG). The scientists realized that a slow neutron reactor fuelled with uranium would theoretically produce substantial amounts of 239Pu
as a by-product. The experiments also showed theoretically feasible grounds that element 94
would be readily fissionable by both slow and fast neutrons, and had the added advantage of being chemically different from uranium, and could easily be separated from it. After the discovery, the PAEC used Shaukat Hameed Khan's MLIS method to separate plutonium isotopes at Neutron Facility at PINSTECH. From 1974, Shaukat Hameed Khan had continuously worked on this complex and difficult method and successfully used the method to separate the isotopes of plutonium. For this achievement, Shaukat Hameed Khan was conferred with high-civil award by the President
. On the contrary to popular perception, the plutonium route did not forego and pursued it along with the uranium route. Unlike, Dr. A.Q. Khan, the PAEC scientists and engineers under Munir Ahmad Khan developed the indigenous capability to develop the programme. The scientists and engineers brought together their experiences that they had gained working in European and American nuclear firms, and designed reprocessing plants, weapons laboratories, enrichment techniques and production of weapon grade plutonium.
In March 1983, only senior scientists and high civil and military officials were invited to witness the cold test of a working nuclear device. In March 1983, the Corps of Engineers, under General Akbar, cleared the underground tunnels
and a PAEC's diagnostic team headed by Dr. Samar Mubarakmand arrived on the nuclear test site with trailers fitted with computers and diagnostic equipment. This was followed by the arrival of the DTD Group and the Wah Group Scientists (WGS) with the atomic device, in sub-assembly form. This was assembled and then placed inside the tunnel. A monitoring system was set up with around 20 cables linking various parts of the device with oscillators in diagnostic vans parked near the Kirana Hills.
On 11 March 1983, PAEC, successfully tested the non-weapon grade plutonium device in Kirana Hill
s under the leadership of Munir Ahmad Khan with Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad heading the test team. The 10 kg
non-weaponized grade 239Pu
, and the natural uranium came from New-Labs at PINSTECH institute, and the detonation system of the implosion devices was developed at the Directorate of Technical Development (DTD) of PAEC under the leadership of Hafeez Qureshi
.
The successful cold fission test
was witnessed by PAEC chaiman Munir Ahmad Khan, General Khalid Mahmud Arif, Air Vice-Marshal
(Major-General) Michael John O'Brian
, and then-Chairman of Senate
, Ghulam Ishaq Khan
. The nuclear device was indigenously developed by the PAEC's research wing, Directorate of Technical Development (DTD), headed by Mr. Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi
. Also, it was Qureshi's designed and developed plutonium-based nuclear device, which was developed during the period of 1980s under the umbrella of Project-706. Pakistan
, under the leadership of Dr. Samar Mubarakmand, tested the two nuclear device on 30 May 1998 at the Kharan desert
, with the codename Chagai-II.
. In return, Libya sent scientists to study Pakistan's enrichment advances. Nominally, the Libyan payments were made in return for Pakistani military assistance.
Prime minister
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
invited Libya
to join Project-706 as Libya was the sole financier of Pakistan's Project-706. Libya also hoped that by following Pakistan's Project-706; Libya could have its own nuclear weapon program
. Libya responded to the invitation by preparing and sending its small team of nuclear scientists to the Pakistan's high-powered nuclear research institutions.
By the time Libya had joined the research, Bhutto, as an elected Prime Minister, was hung by the bloody
Military coup d'état attempted by Chief of Army Staff Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
. According to Time Magazine, General Zia initially opposed Bhutto's idea of Libya joining Project-706. So in 1977, after General Zia took over the government, Libya's connection with Project-706 was immediately cut. According to the Time article, General Zia personally disliked and distrusted Colonel Gaddafi. Zia quickly excluded Libyan scientists from Project-706, resulting in Libyans leaving Pakistan.
General Zia also cut off the military aid
to Libya
by the end of 1979. Pakistan
, under General Zia's regime, found itself providing financial aid to its nuclear program. Ghulam Ishaq Khan
played an important and major role in Pakistan's nuclear weapons research program. He also set up a financial agreement by the end of the 1980s. Despite this evidence, Colonel Gaddafi of Libya has stated that Libya never financially helped Pakistan's atomic program.
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and Russo-Afghan War
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
whose objective was to develop Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
' first atomic weapon. The mainstream goal of the project was the development of an atomic bomb using High-enriched uranium technology
Nuclear technology
Nuclear technology is technology that involves the reactions of atomic nuclei. Among the notable nuclear technologies are nuclear power, nuclear medicine, and nuclear weapons...
. Despite the aim and focus of the project, Pakistani scientists and engineers gained expertise in the use of reactor-grade plutonium, and successfully produced weapon-grade plutonium by the early 1980s. The project was launched after the secession of East Pakistan
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
as a result of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
and Pakistan War in Bangladesh
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....
. It was an effort which was led by Pakistan. Project-706 refers specifically to the period from 1974–1983 when it was under the control of former prime minister
Prime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party — the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his...
, and later on under the military administration of Major-General Zahid Ali Akbar Khan of the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers
Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers
The Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers, , is an active military administrative staff corps, and a major science and technology command of the Pakistan Army...
.
The project's roots lay in scientists' fears since 1967 that India was also investigating nuclear weapons of its own
India and weapons of mass destruction
India possesses nuclear weapons and maintains short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable aircraft, surface ships, and submarines under development as possible delivery systems and platforms...
. Developing nuclear technology for Pakistan was a mainstream goal and a dream of Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who initiated the scientific research in 1972.
Before the launching of Project-706 in 1974, the initial scientific research, starting from 1972, was directed and organized by renowned Pakistani scientist Abdus Salam
Abdus Salam
Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام, pronounced , (January 29, 1926– November 21, 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the...
. From 1974, the research was led by engineers Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...
of PAEC and Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...
of KRL. Time magazine has called Project-706 Pakistan's equivalent of the United States' Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
. The project cost US$450 million (raised by both Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
and Saudia Arabia) which was approved by Bhutto in 1972.
Project-706 led to the creation of multiple production and research sites that operated in extreme secrecy and ambiguity
Nuclear ambiguity
Nuclear ambiguity can mean:*neither confirming nor denying possession of nuclear weapons, see Nuclear weapons and Israel*problem that launching an attack with a conventional weapon can be mistaken for a nuclear attack, see Prompt Global Strike...
. As well as research and development, the project was also charged with gathering intelligence on Indian nuclear efforts
India and weapons of mass destruction
India possesses nuclear weapons and maintains short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable aircraft, surface ships, and submarines under development as possible delivery systems and platforms...
. The Project was honourably disbanded from its service when Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, , is an administrative governmental and autonomous science and technology governmental department of Pakistan, responsible for development of nuclear energy and development of nuclear power sector in Pakistan...
(PAEC) carried out the first cold test of a miniature nuclear device on 11 March 1983. Scientists and Military officers who participated in the Project were given higher promotion in their respective services, and conferred with high civil decorations
Civil decorations of Pakistan
The Pakistan Civil Awards were established on March 19, 1957, following the proclamation of Pakistan as an independent Republic on March 23, 1956. The announcement of civil awards is generally made once a year on Independence Day, August 14, and their investiture takes place on the following...
by the Government of Pakistan
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system, with an indirectly-elected President as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and an indirectly-elected Prime Minister as the Head of Government. The President’s appointment and term are...
.
Proposals
The history of Pakistani interests in nuclear sciences goes back to late 1948 when a large number of scientists, mathematicians, chemists, and physicists moved to Pakistan from India on the request of Prime ministerPrime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
Liaqat Ali Khan. The research in nuclear technology was encouraged by Mark Oliphant
Mark Oliphant
Sir Marcus 'Mark' Laurence Elwin Oliphant, AC, KBE, FRS was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played a fundamental role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and also the development of the atomic bomb.During his retirement, Oliphant was appointed as the Governor of...
who, in 1948, wrote a letter to Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a Muslim lawyer, politician, statesman and the founder of Pakistan. He is popularly and officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam and Baba-e-Qaum ....
to engage research in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. According to Mark Oliphant, no other Muslim scientist was available in the subcontinent other than Dr. Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry
Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry
Professor Dr. Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry or R. M. Chaudhry , FPAS HI, NI, SI, Skdt, was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and a professor of particle physics at the Government College University...
who could prove useful for the newly born country in the field of Nuclear Technology. A letter was directed to Chaudhry, who migrated to Pakistan in 1948 and established High-Tension Laboratory in 1952. On December 8, 1953, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Dwight Eisenhower launched the Atoms for Peace
Atoms for Peace
"Atoms for Peace" was the title of a speech delivered by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8, 1953....
program, where Pakistan was amongst the earliest countries to sign the treaty. On December 8, 1953, the Pakistani media
Media in Pakistan
Media in Pakistan provides information on television, radio, cinema, newspapers, and magazines in Pakistan.-Regulation:The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority was formed in 2002 to "facilitate and promote a free, fair and independent electronic media", including opening the broadcasting...
welcomed the proposed peaceful use of atomic energy, but Foreign minister Sir Zaf-rulla Khan
Muhammad Zafrulla Khan
Chaudhry Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, KCSI was a Pakistani politician, diplomat, international jurist, and scholar of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, known for drafting the Pakistan Resolution, for his representation of Pakistan at the United Nations, and serving as a judge at the International...
stated that Pakistan did not have a policy towards the atom bomb. In 1956, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, , is an administrative governmental and autonomous science and technology governmental department of Pakistan, responsible for development of nuclear energy and development of nuclear power sector in Pakistan...
(PAEC) was founded and its first chairman was Dr. Nazir Ahmad
Nazir Ahmed (physicist)
Nazir Ahmed , D.Phil., was a Pakistani experimental physicist and a chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1956 to 1960. He was born in Lahore, British India .-Life:...
, and Science Advisor to the Prime minister, Dr. Salimuzzaman Siddiqui
Salimuzzaman Siddiqui
Salimuzzaman Siddiqui , HI, MBE, SI, D.Phil., FPAS, FRS. was a leading Pakistani scientist in Natural Product Chemistry. He is credited for pioneering the isolation of unique chemical compounds from the Neem , Rauwolfia, and various other flora. As the founder director of H.E.J...
served agency's first Technical (member)
Chief technical officer
A chief technology officer is an executive-level position in a company or other entity whose occupant is focused on scientific and technological issues within an organization....
. In 1958, the PAEC drafted a proposal to the military government of Field Marshal Ayub Khan for the acquisition of either the Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
NRX
NRX
NRX was a heavy water moderated, light water cooled, nuclear research reactor at the Canadian Chalk River Laboratories, which came into operation in 1947 at a design power rating of 10 MW , increasing to 42 MW by 1954...
heavy water reactor or the CP-5
Chicago Pile 5
Chicago Pile 5 was the last of the line of Chicago Pile research reactors which started with CP-1 in 1943. The first reactor built on the Argonne National Laboratory-East site, it operated from 1954-1979....
reactor, at the Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is the first science and engineering research national laboratory in the United States, receiving this designation on July 1, 1946. It is the largest national laboratory by size and scope in the Midwest...
. However, Ayub Khan's Military government vetoed the proposal.
On March 1958, Nazir Ahmad made another proposal to the chairman of the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation
Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation
Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation is a state corporation of Pakistan. It was created to set up industries in Pakistan and then resell them to private enterprise...
(PIDC) for setting up a heavy water nuclear plant
Multan Heavy Water Production Facility
The Multan Heavy Water Production Facility is a small heavy water production plant, located in Multan, Punjab, Pakistan, with an original annual capacity of 13 metric tons. Equipment for the plant was partly obtained from Belgium in 1980....
with a production capacity of 50 kg of heavy water per day at Multan in conjunction with a planned fertilizer factory. However, the PIDC did not act on the PAEC's proposal. Field Marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
Ayub Khan rejected the proposal and instead transferred Dr. Nazir Ahmad immediately to the Federal Bureau of Statistics
Federal Bureau of Statistics
The Federal Bureau of Statistics, also known as FBS is a Government of Pakistan's major and executive and federal department charged with the national statistical services and to provide solid and comprehensive statistical research. The FBS is one of the departments of the Statistics Division of...
. On March 1959, the PAEC entered an agreement with United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
, in which the United States agreed to provide a 5MW pool-type reactor. In 1960, a bureaucrat named Dr. Ishrat Hussain Usmani
Ishrat Hussain Usmani
Ishrat Hussain Usmani, , , , best known as Dr. I. H. Usmani, was a Pakistani bureaucrat and an atomic physicist who was the chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1960 to 1972; as well as the Co-chairman of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission...
succeeded Ahmad as chairman of the PAEC. Usmani played a pivotal role in the construction and development of Karachi Nuclear Power Plant by setting up Uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
and Plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
exploration committees throughout the country. Many Nuclear research institutes were also established, and work was begun to set up surveying the suitable sites for nuclear power plants.
In 1965, Science Advisor to the Government, Dr. Abdus Salam
Abdus Salam
Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام, pronounced , (January 29, 1926– November 21, 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the...
traveled to United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to sign an agreement with the Government of United States to provide a research reactor in Rawalpindi. In United States, Salam also held meeting with renowned Edward Durell Stone
Edward Durell Stone
Edward Durell Stone was a twentieth century American architect who worked primarily in the Modernist style.-Early life:...
, where he signed another contract. It was under Abdus Salam's leadership that Stone designed and then led construction of a nuclear research institute in Nilore.
The same year, the PAEC entered another agreement with General Electric of Canada
Canadian General Electric
Canadian General Electric was a Canadian manufacturer of various electrical products. The company was a forerunner of General Electric Canada, now known as GE Canada. It was the Canadian counterpart of the American company General Electric.Canadian General Electric Co...
to build a 137MW Nuclear power plant at Karachi. In 1967, Abdus Salam urged Field Marshal Ayub Khan to acquire a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility from the United States, however Ayub Khan and his Finance minister
Finance Minister of Pakistan
The Finance Minister of Pakistan heads the Ministry of Finance and serves in the Prime Minister's cabinet. The Minister is required to be a member of the Parliament.The current finance minister is Abdul Hafeez Shaikh...
Muhammad Shoaib
Muhammad Shoaib
Muhammad Shoaib was Finance Minister of Pakistan from November 15, 1958 - June 8, 1962 and December 15, 1962 - March 23, 1965. He was married to Iffatara. Nafis Sadik is the daughter of Muhammad Shoaib.- See also :* Nafis Sadik...
, had denied Salam's request.
After the 1965 India-Pakistan War
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. This conflict became known as the Second Kashmir War fought by India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir, the first having been fought in 1947...
, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Foreign minister at that time, began to lobby for a nuclear weapons option. In October 1965, Bhutto visited Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to attend the International Atomic Energy Agency
International Atomic Energy Agency
The International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
meeting. While there, he met with Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...
, and other Pakistani scientists working at IAEA. Pakistani IAEA scientists briefed Bhutto on the rapid development of Indian nuclear programme
India and weapons of mass destruction
India possesses nuclear weapons and maintains short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, nuclear-capable aircraft, surface ships, and submarines under development as possible delivery systems and platforms...
. According to Munir Ahmad Khan, the nuclear facility
CIRUS reactor
CIRUS is a research reactor at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Trombay near Mumbai, India. CIRUS was supplied by Canada in 1954, but uses heavy water supplied by the United States. It is the second oldest reactor in India. It is modeled on the Canadian Chalk River National Research...
at Trombay
Trombay
Trombay is a northeastern suburb in Mumbai, India, with Mankhurd as the closest railway station on the Harbour Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway.-History:...
consisted of a plutonium production reactor, a reprocessing plant, and other facilities associated to weapon production. Bhutto quickly arranged a meeting with Ayub Khan. After this meeting, Ayub Khan remained unconvinced, and rejected the proposal made by Munir Ahmad Khan. Khan notified Bhutto immediately and told him about what had happened. After learning what happened, Bhutto famously replied, "Don't worry. Our turn will come. In 1967, a team of Pakistani scientists, under Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry
Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry
Professor Dr. Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry or R. M. Chaudhry , FPAS HI, NI, SI, Skdt, was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and a professor of particle physics at the Government College University...
, produced the first batch of radioisotopes at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology. The research in nuclear technology at PINSTECH began to pick up speed, and Abdus Salam began to supervise Pakistani research institutes.
In 1968, research on theoretical physics had began at the newly created Institute of Physics (IP). The IP was established in the small department of physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University (as of today, the IP and the department of physics has been expanded).
Pakistani theoretical physicists, such as Faheem Hussain
Faheem Hussain
Faheem Hussain , , was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and a professor of physics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences . A research scientist in the field of Superstring theory at the National Center for Physics, Hussain made contributions to the fields of Superstring theory and string...
, Peter Rotolli, John Mumtaz, Fayyazuddin, Ishfaq Ahmad, Masud Ahmad, had began research on theoretical and quantum physics. Faheem Hussain became the first physicist at IP to published research analysis on string theory
String theory
String theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for a theory of everything , a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system...
. Later on, the Relativity Group under Fayyazuddin carried out work on the Bethe-Bloch theory. In 1969, Raziuddin Siddiqui established Einstein's Physics Group (EPG) and carried out experiments on general relativity
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
and quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
.
The Indo-Pakistani 1971 War
In March 1970, the general electionsPakistani general election, 1970
General elections were held for the first time in Pakistan in on 7 December 1970, although the polls in East Pakistan, originally scheduled for October, were delayed by disastrous floods and rescheduled for later in December and January 1971....
were held in Pakistan under the Military government of General Yahya Khan. The electoral results triggered the Bangladesh Liberation War
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....
in East Pakistan
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
. Meanwhile, the political situation in West Pakistan was further deteriorating, and tension momentarily grew between the East and West Pakistan. A military action in East Pakistan called Operation Searchlight
Operation Searchlight
Operation Searchlight was a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in the erstwhile East Pakistan in March 1971. Ordered by the central government in West Pakistan, this was seen as the sequel to "Operation Blitz" which had been...
opened a series of bloody counter-insurgency operations led by the defected Bengali dissidents of Pakistan Armed Forces. Later, India intervened in the conflict as covert operations were successfully led by the Indian intelligence agencies.
This was followed by Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
, a war in the western front. Pakistan, now fighting on both fronts, lost the war after only 13 days. The war with India and East-Pakistan had caused the collapse of the military government
Military government
Military government can refer to conditions under either Military occupation, or Military dictatorship.-Military Government:Military government is the form of administration by which an occupying power exercises governmental authority over occupied territory.The Hague Conventions of 1907 specify...
of Yahya Khan, and dissolution of United Pakistan. The conflict in East-Pakistan ended as the Military government in East.
On the western front, the central military government of General Yahya Khan also collapsed and lost control over the country. The Pakistani economy was further crippled as an economical outcome of the war. The Indian Navy
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy is the naval branch of the armed forces of India. The President of India serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff , usually a four-star officer in the rank of Admiral, commands the Navy...
had severely damaged and destroyed main sea ports of Pakistan, and the business, social, and economic infrastructure of Karachi was demolished during the war. On December 16, 1971, East Pakistan seceded as the independent state of Bangladesh.
During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
, Pakistan had lost a significant amount of territory as well as geopolitical and economic influence in South-Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
. The size of the Military of Pakistan and the civil population dramatically and exponentially decreased. Pakistan lost half its Navy
Pakistan Navy
The Pakistan Navy is the naval warfare/service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Pakistan's Navy is responsible for Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important civilian harbors and military bases...
, a quarter of its Air Force
Pakistan Air Force
The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...
and a third of its Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
as well as losing millions of citizens to newly created Bangladesh.
Under pressured by the public and media, Military Government's Combatant Headquarters, the GHQ, surrendered to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came into political power, governmental nuclear organizations came under control of Bhutto. In early January 1972, the year after the war, the ISI
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
learned that India was close to developing an atomic bomb. Bhutto called Munir Ahmad Khan from Vienna and immediately removed Ishrat Hussain Usmani
Ishrat Hussain Usmani
Ishrat Hussain Usmani, , , , best known as Dr. I. H. Usmani, was a Pakistani bureaucrat and an atomic physicist who was the chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1960 to 1972; as well as the Co-chairman of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission...
as the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Dr. Abdus Salam, Science Advisor, managed a meeting of senior scientists and officials of PAEC. On January 20, 1972, at Multan, Abdus Salam managed a meeting of senior scientists of PAEC, where Bhutto asked Nuclear engineer Munir Ahmad Khan of the International Atomic Energy Agency
International Atomic Energy Agency
The International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
to take the charge of the nuclear weapons program.
Organization
On December 1972, Nobel laureate Abdus SalamAbdus Salam
Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk Mohammad Abdus Salam, NI, SPk (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام, pronounced , (January 29, 1926– November 21, 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the...
began to initiate the work on nuclear weapons. Abdus Salam called two of his students, Riazuddin and Masud Ahmad
Masud Ahmad
Muhammad Masud Ahmad, Born: 1942, known as Masood Ahmad, D.Phil, Sc.D, SI, HI , is a Pakistani theoretical physicist and ICTP laureate who is renowned for his work in Neutron t scattering...
working at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics
International Centre for Theoretical Physics
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics was founded in 1964 by Pakistani scientist and Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam after consulting with Munir Ahmad Khan. It operates under a tripartite agreement among the Italian Government, UNESCO, and International Atomic Energy Agency...
(ICTP) to report to Munir Ahmad Khan. Theoretical physicists at Institute of Physics (IP) of Quaid-e-Azam University began to report back to Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Theoretical physicists at IP formed the "Theoretical Physics Group (TPG)", which was mandated to develop the design of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Dr. Abdus Salam played an integral role in TPG, and had done the groundbreaking work for the "Theoretical Physics Group", which was initially headed by Salam until 1974. The TPG took the research in Fast neutron calculations—the key to calculations of critical mass and weapon detonation. The TPG began to report directly to dr. Abdus Salam and research was undertaken under his supervision. The TPG examined the problems of neutron diffraction
Neutron diffraction
Neutron diffraction or elastic neutron scattering is the application of neutron scattering to the determination of the atomic and/or magnetic structure of a material: A sample to be examined is placed in a beam of thermal or cold neutrons to obtain a diffraction pattern that provides information of...
, the theory of Simultaneity
Relativity of simultaneity
In physics, the relativity of simultaneity is the concept that simultaneity–whether two events occur at the same time–is not absolute, but depends on the observer's reference frame. According to the special theory of relativity, it is impossible to say in an absolute sense whether two events occur...
, hydrodynamics, and what kind of and how much fissile material and reflectors would be used. In 1973, Bhutto appointed Raziuddin Siddiqui
Raziuddin Siddiqui
Dr. Professor Muhammad Raziuddin Siddiqui , , also known as Dr. Razi, was an eminent Pakistani theoretical physicist and a renowned mathematician who played an instrumental and an influential role in Pakistan's education system and Pakistan's integrated nuclear detterence development...
as Technical member of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, and made him responsible for the preparation of its charter. At there, Raziuddin Siddiqui, a theoretical physicist, established the Mathematical Physics Group (MPG) that took charge to carried out research in calculations on MC Integrals, cross section theory
Cross section (physics)
A cross section is the effective area which governs the probability of some scattering or absorption event. Together with particle density and path length, it can be used to predict the total scattering probability via the Beer-Lambert law....
, critical mass theory
Critical mass
A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The...
, and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
involved in general theory of fission reactions
Nuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
.
Educated at the Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is the first science and engineering research national laboratory in the United States, receiving this designation on July 1, 1946. It is the largest national laboratory by size and scope in the Midwest...
, Munir Ahmad Khan and Abdus Salam called a meeting to initiate a work on an atomic weapon in March of 1974 at the Pinstech Institute. The meeting was convened by Abdus Salam and Riazuddin of the Theoretical Physics Group (TPG), Asghar Qadir and Munir Ahmad Rashid of Mathematical Physics Group (MPG), Ishfaq Ahmad and Samar Mubarakmand of Nuclear Physics Group (NPG), and Hafeez Qureshi and dr. Zaman Sheikh of Wah Group Scientists (WGS). During the meeting, the word "bomb" was never used, instead the academic scientists preferred to use scientific research rationale. There, the scientists decided to develop an 'implosion
Nuclear weapon design
Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three basic design types...
' over the 'gun type fission device
Gun-type fission weapon
Gun-type fission weapons are fission-based nuclear weapons whose design assembles their fissile material into a supercritical mass by the use of the "gun" method: shooting one piece of sub-critical material into another...
citing economy in the use of fissile material. The Plutonium and Uranium exploration committees, under Ishfaq Ahmad and Ahsan Mubarak, made discoveries of natural raw plutonium ores and Natural uranium
Natural uranium
Natural uranium refers to refined uranium with the same isotopic ratio as found in nature. It contains 0.7 % uranium-235, 99.3 % uranium-238, and a trace of uranium-234 by weight. In terms of the amount of radioactivity, approximately 2.2 % comes from uranium-235, 48.6 % uranium-238, and 49.2 %...
deposits in the different areas of country. The Nuclear Physics Group, formed in 1967, began to work to under Ishfaq Ahmad
Ishfaq Ahmad
Ishfaq Ahmad , D.Sc., Minister of State, SI, HI, NI, FPAS, is a Pakistani nuclear physicist, and well-known educationist and academic from Pakistan...
. The NPG analysis the problems on the converting 238U
Uranium-238
Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature. It is not fissile, but is a fertile material: it can capture a slow neutron and after two beta decays become fissile plutonium-239...
into 239Pu
Plutonium-239
Plutonium-239 is an isotope of plutonium. Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 has also been used and is currently the secondary isotope. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in...
. In 1980s the NPG successfully produced the 10 kg of uranium. The NPG also manufactured and reprocessed the Plutonium isotopes
Isotopes of plutonium
Plutonium is an artificial element, except for trace quantities of primordial 244Pu, and thus a standard atomic mass cannot be given. Like all artificial elements, it has no stable isotopes. It was synthesized long before being found in nature, the first isotope synthesized being 238Pu in 1940....
at the New Labs, PARR-Reactor.
In March 1974, in a meeting led by Abdus Salam and Munir Ahmad Khan, constituted a small directorate, code name Wah Group Scientists (WGS). Its members contained Hafeez Qureshi, director-general of Radiation Isotope Application Division (RIAD), and Dr. Zaman Sheikh, a chemical engineer
Chemical engineer
In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...
from DESTO
Defence Science and Technology Organization
The Defence Science and Technology Organization, best known as DESTO, is a defense science and technological sciences government agency of Pakistan Defence Forces located in Rawalpindi, Punjab province of Pakistan. DESTO is an independent science and defence research organization, known for its...
. The Wah Group Scientists began research on high precision
Automatic calculation of particle interaction or decay
The automatic calculation of particle interaction or decay is part of the computational particle physics branch. It refers to computing tools that help calculating the complex particle interactions as studied in high-energy physics, astroparticle physics and cosmology...
mechanical and chemical components, physics calculation, high explosives and triggering mechanism. The same month of March, Abdus Salam and Munir Ahmad Khan sat up a plant to manufacture fissile explosive lenses. In April 1974, Abdus Salam formed another group "Laser Physics Group" (LPG), headed by dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan
Shaukat Hameed Khan
Shaukat Hameed Khan , , is a Pakistani nuclear physicist and a senior professor of nuclear physics at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. He previously had served as the rector of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology...
. The Laser Physics Group was charged to carry out research and discover process to separate NU
Natural uranium
Natural uranium refers to refined uranium with the same isotopic ratio as found in nature. It contains 0.7 % uranium-235, 99.3 % uranium-238, and a trace of uranium-234 by weight. In terms of the amount of radioactivity, approximately 2.2 % comes from uranium-235, 48.6 % uranium-238, and 49.2 %...
into EU
Enriched uranium
Enriched uranium is a kind of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Natural uranium is 99.284% 238U isotope, with 235U only constituting about 0.711% of its weight...
and DU
Depleted uranium
Depleted uranium is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope U-235 than natural uranium . Uses of DU take advantage of its very high density of 19.1 g/cm3...
. The LPG used advanced laser technologies, and examined the problems in molecular isotopic of separation of 235U
Uranium-235
- References :* .* DOE Fundamentals handbook: Nuclear Physics and Reactor theory , .* A piece of U-235 the size of a grain of rice can produce energy equal to that contained in three tons of coal or fourteen barrels of oil. -External links:* * * one of the earliest articles on U-235 for the...
—whether to use infrared or Ultra violet lasers— and Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...
and atomic spectroscopy
Atomic spectroscopy
Atomic spectroscopy is the determination of elemental composition by its electromagnetic or mass spectrum. Atomic spectroscopy is closely related to other forms of spectroscopy. It can be divided by atomization source or by the type of spectroscopy used. In the latter case, the main division is...
— what would be its wavelength
Wavelength
In physics, the wavelength of a sinusoidal wave is the spatial period of the wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.It is usually determined by considering the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase, such as crests, troughs, or zero crossings, and is a...
and how atoms separated and ionized.
In the early of 1974, under the advise of Abdus Salam, PAEC formed another group, "Fast Neutron Physics Group", under Samar Mubarakmand
Samar Mubarakmand
Samar Mubarakmand , , is a Pakistani nuclear physicist, who served as the founding chairman of National Engineering and Scientific Commission from 2001 till 2007. Samar Mubarak-Mand launched the Missile Integration Programme in 1987 which was successfully completed in 2005...
. The Fast Neutron Physics Group (FNPG) took research in and examined the problems in the science of neutron, a subatomic particle
Subatomic particle
In physics or chemistry, subatomic particles are the smaller particles composing nucleons and atoms. There are two types of subatomic particles: elementary particles, which are not made of other particles, and composite particles...
. The Fast Neutron Physics Group calculated the numerical ranges of neutrons — how much power
Power (physics)
In physics, power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or transformed. For example, the rate at which a light bulb transforms electrical energy into heat and light is measured in watts—the more wattage, the more power, or equivalently the more electrical energy is used per unit...
would be produced by the neutrons — and the efficiency of neutrons
Neutron economy
Neutron economy is defined as the ratio of an adjoint weighted average of the excess neutron production divided by an adjoint weighted average of the fission production....
— determined the number of neutrons would be produced — in a device. The Fast Neutron Physics Group discovered the treatment process for the Fast, thermal and slow neutrons, and examined the behaviour of Neutron flux
Neutron flux
The neutron flux is a quantity used in reactor physics corresponding to the total length travelled by all neutrons per unit time and volume . The neutron fluence is defined as the neutron flux integrated over a certain time period....
es, and Neutron source
Neutron source
A Neutron source is a device that emits neutrons. There is a wide variety of different sources, ranging from hand-held radioactive sources to neutron research facilities operating research reactors and spallation sources...
s in particle accelerator installed at PINTECH. The Fast Neutron Physics Group used the R-process
R-process
The r-process is a nucleosynthesis process, likely occurring in core-collapse supernovae responsible for the creation of approximately half of the neutron-rich atomic nuclei that are heavier than iron. The process entails a succession of rapid neutron captures on seed nuclei, typically Ni-56,...
to determined the neutrons' behaviour in the fissionable device.
In the end of 1974, Pakistan's Parliament passed a bill with majority declaring Ahmadis
Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious revivalist movement founded in India near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as...
to be non-Muslims after which Dr. Abdus Salam, a senior scientist, left Pakistan for Great Britain in protest. Now, in the absence of Salam, Munir Ahmad Khan continued the organizations. The Nuclear Engineering Division, under Bashiruddin Mahmood first sat up the 238U
Uranium-238
Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature. It is not fissile, but is a fertile material: it can capture a slow neutron and after two beta decays become fissile plutonium-239...
production facility and the construction began under Munir Ahmad Khan's guidance and direction.
Acceleration of the Project
Three years after Pakistan's defeat on 1971 Indo-Pakistani conflict, India, on 18 May 1974, carried out its first nuclear test, code named Smiling BuddhaSmiling Buddha
The Smiling Buddha, formally designated as Pokhran-I, was the codename given to Republic of India's first nuclear test explosion that took place at the long-constructed Indian Army base, Pokhran Test Range at Pokhran municipality, Rajasthan state on 18 May 1974 at 8:05 a.m....
, near the Pakistan's Eastern Border in the Sindh Province. The nuclear test was a surprise and caused a great alarm of the Government of Pakistan
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system, with an indirectly-elected President as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and an indirectly-elected Prime Minister as the Head of Government. The President’s appointment and term are...
. On May 19 of 1974, in a news conference, Bhutto said: India's nuclear program is designed to intimidate Pakistan and establish "hegemony in the subcontinent". He closed the news conference by saying "even if we have to eat grass, we will make nuclear bombs".
Around this time, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...
, a German-trained metallurgical engineer and nuclear weapon technologist
Nuclear weapons delivery
Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. Several methods have been developed to carry out this task....
, was having a distinguished career in the URENCO. While at URENCO, Dr. Khan was considered a senior translator at the facility and had access into facilities most confidential sites.
After the India's nuclear test, Khan wrote a letter to Bhutto in which he explained that he had expertise in centrifuge-based uranium enrichment technologies at URENCO in Belgium. Bhutto directed the letter to Munir Ahmad Khan to arrange a meeting with Dr. A.Q. Khan. In October 1974, Munir A. Khan sent Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood to The Netherlands to interview Dr. Qadeer Khan. In December 1974, Khan returned to Pakistan to meet Prime Minister Ali Bhutto and PAEC Chairman Ahmad Khan, where he tried to convince Bhutto to adopt his uranium route rather than plutonium route. Bhutto did not agree to halt the Plutonium route but decided on the spot to place Khan in charge of the uranium program, which would be a parallel nuclear program.
Dr. Khan initially worked under Bashiruddin Mahmood. But on 19 April 1976, Qadeer Khan wrote to Munir Ahmad Khan expressing that he was not satisfied and that he wanted to work independently. The letter was forwarded to Prime minister Secretariat. Dr. A.Q. Khan, with sport from Prime Minister Bhutto, formed the Engineering Research Laboratories, which later became known as the Kahuta Research Laboratories
Kahuta Research Laboratories
The Khan Research Laboratories ,, formerly known as Engineering Research Laboratories , is a multi-program Pakistan's weapons science and engineering research and development institute and nuclear research facility...
(KRL). As PAEC, the KRL was under direct control of Bhutto and A.Q. Khan’s had reported directly to Prime Minister Bhutto. Dr. A.Q. Khan disliked the idea of PAEC getting involved in ERL project, instead he favoured Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers
Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers
The Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers, , is an active military administrative staff corps, and a major science and technology command of the Pakistan Army...
to lead the program. The work on ERL was initiated by Bhutto, and the assignment of was assigned to Corps of Engineers.
Per recommendation of A.Q. Khan, the Engineer-in-Chief
Engineer-in-Chief (Pakistan Army)
Engineer-in-Chief or E-in-C, is a Colonel Commandant of the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers, Frontier Works Organisation and the Military Engineering Services of Pakistan...
of Corps of Engineers selected Brigadier Zahid Ali Akbar
Zahid Ali Akbar
Lieutenant-General Zahid Ali Akbar Khan , TKdt, was an engineering officer of Pakistan Army who oversaw the construction of the Generals Combatant Army Headquarter and is well-known as the director of the Kahuta Project as part of the Pakistan's acquisition of integrated atomic bomb project...
, who is renowned for the construction of The GHQ; headquarter of Pakistan Army's Combatant Command, as the head of the project. Brigadier Zahid Ali Akbar led the accelerated construction of the facility, and began to co-administrator the program, alongside with Bhutto. Impressed by his work at Kahuta, Bhutto gave him additional and secretive assignments to be initiated for both PAEC and KRL. An office was sat up in Prime minister Secretariat for Brigadier Akbar, and kept Bhutto informed about the construction of the ERL.
Throughout the years, A.Q. Khan established an administrative proliferation network through Dubai to smuggle URENCO nuclear technology to Khan Research Laboratories. He then established Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
's gas-centrifuge program
Zippe-type centrifuge
The Zippe-type centrifuge is a device designed to collect Uranium-235. It was developed in the Soviet Union by a team of 60 Austrian and German scientists captured after World War II, working in detention...
which was also loosely based on the URENCO's Zippe-type centrifuge.
The Building of Kahuta Project
By September 1976 a one hundred acre site near KahutaKahuta
Kahuta is a town and tehsil in the Rawalpindi District of Pakistan's Punjab Province. According to Pakistan's 2008 census, Kahuta tehsil has a population of approximately 160,000....
was personally selected which Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan claimed in his columns. As the site was selected, Prime Minister Bhutto assigned this project to Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers to lead construction of the facility. Brigadier Zahid Ali Akbar Khan, who himself is a system engineer, was serving at the rank as of one-star rank of Brigadier
Brigadier
Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....
at the time when he was selected by Corps of Engineers, per Bhutto's request. Bhutto ordered Chief of Army Staff General Tikka Khan
Tikka Khan
General Tikka Khan, HJ, HQA, SPk, was a senior four-star general in the Pakistan Army who served as the first Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from 3 March 1972 to 1 March 1976. Before his four-star assignment, Khan was a Martial Law Administrator of erstwhile East-Pakistan...
that Akbar be promoted to two-star major-general, as it was felt that the title "general" would sway with the academic scientists working on the confidential projects. Now a two-star general, Zahid Ali Akbar Khan led the constructions of both Metallurgical Laboratory
Metallurgical Laboratory
The Metallurgical Laboratory or "Met Lab" at the University of Chicago was part of the World War II–era Manhattan Project, created by the United States to develop an atomic bomb...
in Wah Cannt (ML), and uranium enrichment plant in Kahuta,.
Administrative Committees
Conducting a classified projects and maintaining a leadership in the programmes required Bhutto to form a committee that would be responsible for maintaining coordination and order in the projects that the academic scientists were working on. In 1974, Bhutto appointed the civil engineer Dr. Mubashir HassanMubashir Hassan
Mubashir Hassan PhD, is a Pakistani civil engineer and science administrator known for his work in Hydraulics and his political role in the development of the atom bomb project....
as the head of the committee. Mubashir, with Munir Ahmad Khan, stricken the policy that prevented the nuclear proliferation at first. Before the arrival of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, Mubashir was encouraging academic scientists to developed the classified technologies ingeniously. Hassan supervised the construction of the nuclear research laboratories, facilities and testing laboratories throughout the country. With little influence of military, Hassan was proponent of establishing nuclear facilities. Scientists were directly reporting to Dr. Hassan and other civil officers, but final report was submitted to Hassan, who would late brief Bhutto over the progress. After the arrival of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, Dr. Khan tried to work Dr. Hassan and Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, but was dissatisfied with constant involvement of Dr. Hassan, who would continued to look at Dr. Khan's suspected activities in Europe and elsewhere. In 1975, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan succeeded to meet with Bhutto in private and requested a military department to supervise his work rather than dr. Hassan's supervision. Throughout the 1975 until 1977, the military had little presence at first and only involved in a small scale programme with Abdul Qadeer Khan. However, this civil committee was disbanded by General Zia-ul-Haq as he removed Dr. Mubashir Hassan and placed him in Central Jail Ralwalpindi with Bhutto in 1977. The same year, the military took control of the programme and military, for the first time, was involved in every aspect of the programmes. In 1979, after the removal of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Major-General Akbar assumed the command of Project-706 on September 26. A military engineer by profession, Khan administratively established military engineer groups in his Corps. He led the quick construction of the Electrical and Vacuum Laboratory (EVL) as well as building the city of Kahuta. Throughout the years, Major-General Akbar served as the director-general the Kahuta facility. By the 1983, Akbar was promoted to three-star rank of lieutenant general
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
as the military wanted a suitable administrator who understood the scientific needs of the project comprehensively. The same year, Akbar was also given command of the Pakistani Army Corps of Engineers in order to recruit senior people whose cooperation were required.
Lieutenant-General Akbar established a military unit to provide logistic support to both PAEC and KRL. Known as "Special Works Development (SDW)", responsible for the rapid construction of facilities, consisting Brigadier Muhammad Sarfaraz. In 1977, Prime minister Bhutto established a military committee to maintain military administrative leadership in project. The Military Engineering Committee (MEC) was led by Major-General Zahid Ali Akbar, and had Major-General Anis Ahmad — OC
Officer Commanding
The Officer Commanding is the commander of a sub-unit or minor unit , principally used in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. In other countries, the term Commanding Officer is applied to commanders of minor as well as major units.Normally an Officer Commanding is a company, squadron or battery...
of Central Works Organization, Air Vice-Marshal
Air Vice-Marshal
Air vice-marshal is a two-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in...
(Major-General) Michael John O'Brian
Michael John O'Brian
Air Vice-Marshal Michael John O'Brian, , was a retired air force officer and two-star general in the Pakistan Air Force who served as the Commandant of National Defence University, Islamabad. O'Brian was the first Pakistan Air Force general to serve as the Commandant of the university...
—AOC of Sargodha Air Force Base
Sargodha Airbase
PAF Base Mushaf is a Pakistan Air Force airbase located at Sargodha in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the headquarters of the PAF Central Air Command....
, Air Vice-Marshal (Major-General) Eric Gordan Hall
Eric G. Hall
Air Vice-Marshal Eric Gordan Hall , was a Pakistan Air Force bomber and fighter pilot, and former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority...
—AOC
Air Officer Commanding
Air Officer Commanding is a title given in the air forces of Commonwealth nations to an air officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, an air vice marshal might be the AOC 38 Group...
of Chaklala Air Force Base
PAF Base Chaklala
PAF Base Chaklala is an active Pakistan Air Force airbase located in Chaklala Rawalpindi, Punjab province, Pakistan. It also forms part of Islamabad International Airport.-History:The base was originally operated by the Royal Air Force as R.A.F...
, Brigadier Muhammad Sarfaraz—CO
Commanding officer
The commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...
of Special Works Development, and Colonel Zulfikar Ali Khan—CO of 17th FWO Regiment
Frontier Works Organisation
Frontier Works Organisation is a construction and military engineering administrative branch of the Pakistani Army that was established in 1966. It is a part of Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers and it has credited to build numerous bridges, roads, tunnels, airfields and dams in Pakistan. FWO...
.
Meanwhile, A.Q. Khan then established a proliferation network through Dubai to smuggle URENCO nuclear technology to Khan Research Laboratories. A.Q. Khan smuggled sensitive vacuum and technical equipments necessary for the enrichment technology. He then established Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
's gas-centrifuge program
Zippe-type centrifuge
The Zippe-type centrifuge is a device designed to collect Uranium-235. It was developed in the Soviet Union by a team of 60 Austrian and German scientists captured after World War II, working in detention...
based on the URENCO's Zippe-type centrifuge.
Dr. Khan was a uranium technologist who brought with him knowledge of gas centrifuge technologies that he had learned through his position at the classified URENCO uranium enrichment plant in the Netherlands. After General Akbar, Khan was put in charge of building, equipping and operating the Kahuta facility. Dr. Qadeer Khan took over the centrifuge part of the Uranium Enrichment Program from Munir Ahmad Khan, while all other uranium related steps to making uranium gas for enrichment remained under Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...
's responsibility. Bhutto also continued to retain Chairman of PAEC Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan , HI, was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scientist who served as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from 1972 to 1991...
as the head of Plutonium production, nuclear fuel cycle, uranium exploration, processing and conversion, nuclear weapons development and reactor programs.
Foreign Intelligences
The locations of nuclear sites were more secure than the Prime Minister Secretariat, so the security was vigilant as the Government of PakistanGovernment of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system, with an indirectly-elected President as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and an indirectly-elected Prime Minister as the Head of Government. The President’s appointment and term are...
was aware of the United States, Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and other foreign intelligence agencies trying to put in spies. According to the Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmad
Brigadier Imtiaz
Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmed is a retired one-star general of the Pakistan Army who served as a former director-general of Intelligence Bureau between 1990–1993. As a one-star general, Brigadier Imatiaz Ahmad had served as a former senior intelligence operative in the Inter-Services Intelligence...
, United States had the ground intelligence and ISI has arrested a number of Soviet and American spies following the 1976. Brigadier Imatiaz also claimed in an interview with News International
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....
that he had conducted the military operation "Rising Sun" in 1979 that successfully thwarted a CIA plot to target Pakistani nuclear scientists and engineers who were closely associated with Pakistan's nuclear programme. The operation concluded with the arrest and a life imprisonment of a Pakistani CIA agent, Rafiq Safi Munshi, who himself was working as a nuclear engineer at KANUPP
KANUPP
The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, widely known as KANUPP-I, is a commercial nuclear power plant, located at Karachi, Sindh Province of Pakistan. In terms of Nuclear industry, the KANUPP-I is Pakistan's first nuclear power plant and is the first nuclear power plant in the Muslim world to be constructed...
, tried to wire classified atomic documents to the American consulate in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
. The operation ended with a declaration of a few undercover CIA agents and U.S. diplomats as personae non gratae and their return.
On 26 June 1979, Pakistan's ISI
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
foiled an attempt by the French Ambassador to Pakistan, Le Gourrierce and his First Secretary, Jean Forlot who were on a surveillance mission to Kahuta Research Laboratories
Kahuta Research Laboratories
The Khan Research Laboratories ,, formerly known as Engineering Research Laboratories , is a multi-program Pakistan's weapons science and engineering research and development institute and nuclear research facility...
nuclear complex on 26 June 1979. Both were intercepted and their cameras and other sensitive equipment were confiscated. Documents that were intercepted later showed that the two were recruited by the CIA.
After the successful outcomes of Operation Opera
Operation Opera
Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on June 7, 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq....
, Israel planned an attack on the suspected nuclear facility in early 1980s. The M.I.
Military Intelligence of Pakistan
In Pakistan Defence Forces, the Directorate-General for the Military Intelligence , is a Pakistan Defence Forces intelligence agency and that is responsible for the military counter-intelligence. It also refers specifically to the intelligence components of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Unlike the...
and Air Intelligence (AI) of Pakistan learned the Israeli attempted operation. The Israeli Air Force's fighter jets flew close to Pakistan's northern border. However, due to alert, the PAF
Pakistan Air Force
The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...
responded with an aggressive retaliation. The PAF's aggressor squadron
Aggressor squadron
An aggressor squadron or adversary squadron is a squadron that is trained to act as an opposing force in military wargames. Aggressor squadrons use enemy tactics, techniques, and procedures to give a realistic simulation of air combat...
's jets belonging to No. 11 Squadron Arrows intercepted
Interceptor aircraft
An interceptor aircraft is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to prevent missions of enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Interceptors generally rely on high speed and powerful armament in order to complete their mission as quickly as possible and set up...
the IAF jets and gained a missile lock on one of the Israeli jets. The Israeli jets were panicked and surprised by the resistance given by the PAF jets, and therefore pulled back immediately. Soon after the incident, Munir Ahmad Khan met with Raja Ramanna
Raja Ramanna
Raja Ramanna , D.Phil., was an Indian nuclear scientist and a prominent physicist, is best known for his leadership directing the research integral for the development of Indian nuclear programme in its early stages. Having started and joined the nuclear programme in 1964, Ramanna worked under...
of India. A high-level Pakistani mission was sent to Vienna where both country had signed an agreement promising not to attack or assist a foreign power to attack each others facilities.
Uranium route
Uranium-238
Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature. It is not fissile, but is a fertile material: it can capture a slow neutron and after two beta decays become fissile plutonium-239...
and only 0.7% 235U
Uranium-235
- References :* .* DOE Fundamentals handbook: Nuclear Physics and Reactor theory , .* A piece of U-235 the size of a grain of rice can produce energy equal to that contained in three tons of coal or fourteen barrels of oil. -External links:* * * one of the earliest articles on U-235 for the...
, but only the latter is fissile. The rarer but chemically identical 235U
Uranium-235
- References :* .* DOE Fundamentals handbook: Nuclear Physics and Reactor theory , .* A piece of U-235 the size of a grain of rice can produce energy equal to that contained in three tons of coal or fourteen barrels of oil. -External links:* * * one of the earliest articles on U-235 for the...
must be physically separated
Isotope separation
Isotope separation is the process of concentrating specific isotopes of a chemical element by removing other isotopes, for example separating natural uranium into enriched uranium and depleted uranium. This is a crucial process in the manufacture of uranium fuel for nuclear power stations, and is...
from the more plentiful isotope. This process of uranium enrichment into weapon-grade is extremely difficult and sensitive, and requires advanced technology. However, A.Q. Khan's efforts
Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...
helped him achieve this by illegally acquiring technology.
Before Khan's arrival, a Coordination Board was set up to manage and supervise the Projects' uranium-route. Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood of the Nuclear Engineering Division, was made the project director. Dr. Khan took over the project from Mahmood as he wanted to work alone. This Board was composed of A G N Kazi
A G N Kazi
Aftab Ghulam Nabi Kazi SPk, SK, was a Pakistani statesman during the Cold war and during the post cold war. Kazi was born in Sindh, Bombay Presidency in 1919 to an educationist family of academic class. Kazi started his career in Indian Civil Service in 1944 and served as the Deputy Commissioner...
, Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan , abbreviated as GIK, was the seventh President of Pakistan from August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993 and a career statesman from the start to the end of cold war...
, Agha Shahi
Agha Shahi
Agha Shahi NI was a Pakistani diplomat and Foreign Minister of Pakistan from 1977 to 1982, during the regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. He served as the President of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad till his death.-Diplomatic career:Shahi gained M.Sc...
, and Munir Ahmad Khan. The Pakistan Defence Forces also had established their own boards to support the engineering research activities throughout the country. However, the ERL continued to remain under the overall supervision of PAEC till 1977 after which it was separated and made independent, but throughout the subsequent years and the 1980s, Munir Ahmad Khan continued to serve as a member and later as head of the Uranium enrichment project's Coordination Board. The PAEC sat its own uranium enrichment program to developed advanced version for uranium fuel. The PAEC had worked on the most challenging method of isotope separation Molecular laser isotopes
Molecular laser isotope separation
Molecular laser isotope separation is a method of isotope separation, where specially tuned lasers are used to separate isotopes of uranium using selective ionization of hyperfine transitions of uranium hexafluoride molecules. It is similar to AVLIS...
, Gaseous
Gaseous diffusion
Gaseous diffusion is a technology used to produce enriched uranium by forcing gaseous uranium hexafluoride through semi-permeable membranes. This produces a slight separation between the molecules containing uranium-235 and uranium-238 . By use of a large cascade of many stages, high separations...
and Thermal diffusion
Thermal diffusion
Thermal diffusion may refer to:* Thermal diffusion, an obsolete method of uranium enrichment* Brownian motion .* Diffusion in a temperature gradient ....
. All of these methods were developed and supervised under Shaukat Hameed Khan
Shaukat Hameed Khan
Shaukat Hameed Khan , , is a Pakistani nuclear physicist and a senior professor of nuclear physics at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. He previously had served as the rector of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology...
of the Laser Physics Group (LPG) and Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood of the Nuclear Engineering Division (NED). At PAEC, the Laser Physics Group, under the direction of Shaukat Hameed Khan, developed the MLIS
Molecular laser isotope separation
Molecular laser isotope separation is a method of isotope separation, where specially tuned lasers are used to separate isotopes of uranium using selective ionization of hyperfine transitions of uranium hexafluoride molecules. It is similar to AVLIS...
process for the isotopes separation. Meanwhile, the PAEC continued its support to Engineering Research Laboratories. The PAEC produced 6UF
Uranium hexafluoride
Uranium hexafluoride , referred to as "hex" in the nuclear industry, is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It forms solid grey crystals at standard temperature and pressure , is highly toxic, reacts violently with water...
and provided its feedstock to KRL while the PAEC had used 6UF
Uranium hexafluoride
Uranium hexafluoride , referred to as "hex" in the nuclear industry, is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It forms solid grey crystals at standard temperature and pressure , is highly toxic, reacts violently with water...
in both of their developed Gas and Thermal diffusion methods in their enrichment laboratories. In 1978, the PAEC had eliminated the MLIS method as secondary process to to its difficulty and complexity. A.Q. Khan's stolen gas centrifuges also became a reason that PAEC was not supported to continue its work on MLIS method as secondary process. However, the PAEC did not completely abandoned the work on MLIS method instead it was continued for the research purposes only under Shaukat Hameed Khan. In 1982, the MLIS method was used to separate plutonium isotopes at the Neutron Activation Analysis Laboratory of the PINSTECH. For this, Shaukat Hameed Khan was conferred with a civil award by the president.
Tasneem M. Shah
Tasneem M. Shah, Ph.D., SI, TI, is a Pakistani scientist and a prominent mathematician who has made pioneering and instrumental research and contributions to the field of computational fluid dynamics at Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories...
, a professor of mathematics at Qau. Alam introduced Shah with KRL scientists where they examined the problems. It was followed by forming Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Division. The CFD Division analyzed the problems of the SWU — measuring the amount of work done by the centrifuge, and Centrifugal acceleration — how many rpm would a machine covered, and Rotational dynamics — what would be its appropriate rotational speed
Rotational speed
Rotational speed tells how many complete rotations there are per time unit. It is therefore a cyclic frequency, measured in hertz in the SI System...
. Tasneem Shah gained fame when he independently discovered the problems, and assisted KRL scientists to developed the powerful version of the centrifuges.
As the problems were resolved, Dr. Khan began the enrichment operations. By the start of 1983, the KRL had developed around 1500-2900 gas centrifuge
Gas centrifuge
A gas centrifuge is a device that performs isotope separation of gases. A centrifuge relies on the principles of centripetal force accelerating molecules so that particles of different masses are physically separated in a gradient along the radius of a rotating container.A prominent use of gas...
s loosely based on Urenco Group. It was dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan's effort that on 4 June 1978, scientists working in the Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL) succeed in enriching uranium by Electromagnetic isotope separation of 238U
Uranium-238
Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature. It is not fissile, but is a fertile material: it can capture a slow neutron and after two beta decays become fissile plutonium-239...
and 235U
Uranium-235
- References :* .* DOE Fundamentals handbook: Nuclear Physics and Reactor theory , .* A piece of U-235 the size of a grain of rice can produce energy equal to that contained in three tons of coal or fourteen barrels of oil. -External links:* * * one of the earliest articles on U-235 for the...
isotopes at the then-Pakistan Air Force
Pakistan Air Force
The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...
controlled-Chaklala Air Force Base Centrifuge Laboratory (CACL). Dr. Ghulam Dastagir Alam, who co-headed the isotope separation project, informed dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. Dr. Khan immediately went to GHQ to informed General Zia-Ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
.
By the end of 1983, ERL/KRL
Kahuta Research Laboratories
The Khan Research Laboratories ,, formerly known as Engineering Research Laboratories , is a multi-program Pakistan's weapons science and engineering research and development institute and nuclear research facility...
under Dr. Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...
, claimed to carried out the first cold test of a single nuclear device but it seems that this effort did not prove to be successful since the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, , is an administrative governmental and autonomous science and technology governmental department of Pakistan, responsible for development of nuclear energy and development of nuclear power sector in Pakistan...
led by Munir Ahmad Khan had carried out the first cold test of a working nuclear device on 11 March 1983.
Plutonium route
Despite the research and development effort was putting to developed an atomic device, the Plutonium route was never a part of Project-706. And, PAEC had separated the Plutonium route from the Project-706. The climax and the main focus of Project-706 was to build the Kahuta facility as well as the atomic bomb by using the centrifugal technology that was illegally acquired by the Dr. Qadeer Khan from URENCO GROUPUrenco Group
The URENCO Group is a nuclear fuel company operating several uranium enrichment plants in Germany, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It supplies nuclear power stations in about 15 countries, and has a 25% share of the global market for enrichment services...
. On many different occasions, Dr. Khan had objected the Munir Ahmad Khan's work, and unsuccessfully tried to remove Munir Khan from the research and development as A.Q. Khan wanted the government to focus on his method only. After the dismissal of Bhutto Government
Hyderabad tribunal
The Hyderabad tribunal , also known as Hyderabad conspiracy case, is the name of a former judicial tribunal used in Pakistan to prosecute opposition politicians of the National Awami Party on the charges of treason and acting against the ideology of Pakistan.The tribunal was set up on the orders of...
, Lieutenant-General Zahid Ali Akbar became the in charge of the Project, supervising both PAEC and KRL research developmental work. General Zahid Ali Akbar led the accelerated construction of a plutonium reactor in Rawalpindi which was designed by Hafeez Qureshi. In 1981, the reactor went critical under Iqbal Hussain Qureshi. The reactor was put on test in early 1980s and was processed at ~50% efficiency; the reactor produced the first batch of weapon-grade plutonium.
In 1976, A.Q. Khan was unable to convince Bhutto to halt the Plutonium route. Against the wishes of Khan, the work on plutonium separation process and conversion of uranium into plutonium was taking place under Munir Ahmad Khan. Meanwhile, a team of nuclear chemists of Nuclear Chemistry Division (NCD), under Dr. Iqbal Hussain Qureshi, considered the problem of how plutonium could be separated from uranium when its chemical properties were not known. Nuclear chemists were able to find a separation process, and balanced the first equation for the nuclear weapon at PAEC. The PAEC had work on the difficult and most challenging plutonium separation process which was developed by both Ishfaq Ahmad and Iqbal Hussain Qureshi. At New Labs, the PAEC produced the reactor-grade plutonium isotopes, and reprocessed them into weapon-grade. The breakthrough with plutonium experiment was at the PINSTECH Laboratory by Iqbal Hussain Qureshi of NCD and Ishfaq Ahmad of Nuclear Physics Group (NPG). The scientists realized that a slow neutron reactor fuelled with uranium would theoretically produce substantial amounts of 239Pu
Plutonium-239
Plutonium-239 is an isotope of plutonium. Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 has also been used and is currently the secondary isotope. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in...
as a by-product. The experiments also showed theoretically feasible grounds that element 94
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
would be readily fissionable by both slow and fast neutrons, and had the added advantage of being chemically different from uranium, and could easily be separated from it. After the discovery, the PAEC used Shaukat Hameed Khan's MLIS method to separate plutonium isotopes at Neutron Facility at PINSTECH. From 1974, Shaukat Hameed Khan had continuously worked on this complex and difficult method and successfully used the method to separate the isotopes of plutonium. For this achievement, Shaukat Hameed Khan was conferred with high-civil award by the President
President of Pakistan
The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...
. On the contrary to popular perception, the plutonium route did not forego and pursued it along with the uranium route. Unlike, Dr. A.Q. Khan, the PAEC scientists and engineers under Munir Ahmad Khan developed the indigenous capability to develop the programme. The scientists and engineers brought together their experiences that they had gained working in European and American nuclear firms, and designed reprocessing plants, weapons laboratories, enrichment techniques and production of weapon grade plutonium.
In March 1983, only senior scientists and high civil and military officials were invited to witness the cold test of a working nuclear device. In March 1983, the Corps of Engineers, under General Akbar, cleared the underground tunnels
Underground nuclear testing
Underground nuclear testing refers to test detonations of nuclear weapons that are performed underground. When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to the atmosphere....
and a PAEC's diagnostic team headed by Dr. Samar Mubarakmand arrived on the nuclear test site with trailers fitted with computers and diagnostic equipment. This was followed by the arrival of the DTD Group and the Wah Group Scientists (WGS) with the atomic device, in sub-assembly form. This was assembled and then placed inside the tunnel. A monitoring system was set up with around 20 cables linking various parts of the device with oscillators in diagnostic vans parked near the Kirana Hills.
On 11 March 1983, PAEC, successfully tested the non-weapon grade plutonium device in Kirana Hill
Kirana Hill
The Kirana Hills is a small mountain range in Pakistan's Punjab province. It spans approximately 40 miles across the districts of Sargodha and Jhang.-Topography:...
s under the leadership of Munir Ahmad Khan with Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad heading the test team. The 10 kg
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
non-weaponized grade 239Pu
Plutonium-239
Plutonium-239 is an isotope of plutonium. Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 has also been used and is currently the secondary isotope. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in...
, and the natural uranium came from New-Labs at PINSTECH institute, and the detonation system of the implosion devices was developed at the Directorate of Technical Development (DTD) of PAEC under the leadership of Hafeez Qureshi
Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi
Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi , Neuclear Physics. SI, HI, , also known as Hafeez Qureshi, was a Pakistani Nuclear Scientist...
.
The successful cold fission test
Cold fission
Cold fission or cold nuclear fission is defined as involving fission events for which fission fragments have such low excitation energy that no neutrons or gammas are emitted....
was witnessed by PAEC chaiman Munir Ahmad Khan, General Khalid Mahmud Arif, Air Vice-Marshal
Air Vice-Marshal
Air vice-marshal is a two-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in...
(Major-General) Michael John O'Brian
Michael John O'Brian
Air Vice-Marshal Michael John O'Brian, , was a retired air force officer and two-star general in the Pakistan Air Force who served as the Commandant of National Defence University, Islamabad. O'Brian was the first Pakistan Air Force general to serve as the Commandant of the university...
, and then-Chairman of Senate
Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan
The current Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan is Farooq Naek since 12 March, 2009.The first Chairman of the Senate was Justice Khan Habibullah Khan Marwat.-History:...
, Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan , abbreviated as GIK, was the seventh President of Pakistan from August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993 and a career statesman from the start to the end of cold war...
. The nuclear device was indigenously developed by the PAEC's research wing, Directorate of Technical Development (DTD), headed by Mr. Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi
Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi
Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi , Neuclear Physics. SI, HI, , also known as Hafeez Qureshi, was a Pakistani Nuclear Scientist...
. Also, it was Qureshi's designed and developed plutonium-based nuclear device, which was developed during the period of 1980s under the umbrella of Project-706. Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, under the leadership of Dr. Samar Mubarakmand, tested the two nuclear device on 30 May 1998 at the Kharan desert
Kharan Desert
The Kharan Desert is a sand desert situated in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.Kharan desert is Pakistan's second nuclear test site, and the second nuclear test — Codename Chagai-II — was conducted and supervised by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in May 30, 1998.The desert is...
, with the codename Chagai-II.
Libya and Project-706
According to Time Magazine, Pakistan received hundreds of millions of dollars for Project-706 from LibyaLibya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. In return, Libya sent scientists to study Pakistan's enrichment advances. Nominally, the Libyan payments were made in return for Pakistani military assistance.
Prime minister
Prime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that, 4th President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. Bhutto was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party — the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan— and served as its chairman until his...
invited Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
to join Project-706 as Libya was the sole financier of Pakistan's Project-706. Libya also hoped that by following Pakistan's Project-706; Libya could have its own nuclear weapon program
Libya and nuclear technology
Libya possesses chemical weapons and ballistic missiles and previously pursued nuclear weapons under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi. On 19 December 2003, Gaddafi announced that Libya would voluntarily eliminate all materials, equipment and programs that could lead to internationally proscribed...
. Libya responded to the invitation by preparing and sending its small team of nuclear scientists to the Pakistan's high-powered nuclear research institutions.
By the time Libya had joined the research, Bhutto, as an elected Prime Minister, was hung by the bloody
Bloody
Bloody is the adjectival form of blood but may also be used as an expletive attributive in Australia, Britain, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, South Africa , New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Anglophone Caribbean and Sri Lanka...
Military coup d'état attempted by Chief of Army Staff Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
. According to Time Magazine, General Zia initially opposed Bhutto's idea of Libya joining Project-706. So in 1977, after General Zia took over the government, Libya's connection with Project-706 was immediately cut. According to the Time article, General Zia personally disliked and distrusted Colonel Gaddafi. Zia quickly excluded Libyan scientists from Project-706, resulting in Libyans leaving Pakistan.
General Zia also cut off the military aid
Military aid
Military aid is aid which is used to assist an ally in its defense efforts, or to assist a poor country in maintaining control over its own territory. Many countries receive military aid to help with counter-insurgency efforts...
to Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
by the end of 1979. Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, under General Zia's regime, found itself providing financial aid to its nuclear program. Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan
Ghulam Ishaq Khan , abbreviated as GIK, was the seventh President of Pakistan from August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993 and a career statesman from the start to the end of cold war...
played an important and major role in Pakistan's nuclear weapons research program. He also set up a financial agreement by the end of the 1980s. Despite this evidence, Colonel Gaddafi of Libya has stated that Libya never financially helped Pakistan's atomic program.
See also
- Soviet atomic bomb projectSoviet atomic bomb projectThe Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb , was a clandestine research and development program began during and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union's discovery of the United States' nuclear project...
- Manhattan ProjectManhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
- Smiling BuddhaSmiling BuddhaThe Smiling Buddha, formally designated as Pokhran-I, was the codename given to Republic of India's first nuclear test explosion that took place at the long-constructed Indian Army base, Pokhran Test Range at Pokhran municipality, Rajasthan state on 18 May 1974 at 8:05 a.m....
- Pakistan and nuclear weapons
- Other projects
- Operation AlsosOperation AlsosOperation Alsos was an effort at the end of World War II by the Allies , branched off from the Manhattan Project, to investigate the German nuclear energy project, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research and to prevent their capture by the Soviets, and...
, and German nuclear energy projectGerman nuclear energy projectThe German nuclear energy project, , was an attempted clandestine scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce the atomic weapons during the events involving the World War II... - Japanese atomic programJapanese atomic programThe Japanese program to develop nuclear weapons was conducted during World War II. Like the German nuclear weapons program, it suffered from an array of problems, and was ultimately unable to progress beyond the laboratory stage before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese...
- Soviet atomic bomb projectSoviet atomic bomb projectThe Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb , was a clandestine research and development program began during and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union's discovery of the United States' nuclear project...
- Tube AlloysTube AlloysTube Alloys was the code-name for the British nuclear weapon directorate during World War II, when the development of nuclear weapons was kept at such a high level of secrecy that it had to be referred to by code even in the highest circles of government...
(British WWII atomic program)
- Operation Alsos
- Nuclear weapons
- History of nuclear weaponsHistory of nuclear weaponsThe history of nuclear weapons chronicles the development of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive potential derived from nuclear fission or nuclear fusion reactions...
- Nuclear arms raceNuclear arms raceThe nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War...
- Nuclear weaponNuclear weaponA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
- Nuclear weapon designNuclear weapon designNuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three basic design types...
- Isotope separationIsotope separationIsotope separation is the process of concentrating specific isotopes of a chemical element by removing other isotopes, for example separating natural uranium into enriched uranium and depleted uranium. This is a crucial process in the manufacture of uranium fuel for nuclear power stations, and is...
(necessary for uranium enrichment) - List of countries with nuclear weapons
- The United States and nuclear weapons
- History of nuclear weapons
- Other Topics
- Pakistan – United States relationsPakistan – United States relationsPakistan – United States relations refers to the bilateral relationship between the Pakistan and the United States. The United States first established diplomatic relations with Pakistan on 20 October 1947. The relationship since then was based primarily on U.S. economic and military assistance to...
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1971Indo-Pakistani War of 1971The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
- Indo-Pakistani relationsIndo-Pakistani relationsRelations between India and Pakistan have been strained by a number of historical and political issues, and are defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947, the Kashmir dispute and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations...
- Pakistan-Soviet Relations
- Pakistan – United States relations
Further reading
Personal References and Accounts- Nuclear Activities in South Asia
- The Kahuta Project (Available in UrduUrduUrdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
)
External links
- Project 706 : The Muslim Bomb (BBC Film)
- Project-706: A history by Dr. Inam-ur-Rahman (Film only in Urdu)