With pride, Pakistan marks 20 years of nuclear capability
Pakistan will celebrate the 20th anniversary of becoming the first Islamic nuclear state on May 28.
We were the seventh state in the world to join the nuclear club.
Our test was a befitting response to India’s nuclear tests that same year — on May 11, 1998. It was also a “shut-up call” to their belligerent statements and threats. We showed the world that, given proper leadership support, Pakistani scientists and engineers could make the impossible, possible. It was a historic moment, as important to Pakistanis as our Independence Day is.
To me, that fateful day means even more. It gave me a sense of fulfillment for having completed a task given to me in 1976 by the late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto — to create Engineering Research Laboratories.
At that time, Pakistan had neither infrastructure nor experienced scientific and technical manpower. It was a challenge indeed and we literally started from scratch. We did, however, have the full support of the relevant administrative departments and particularly, that of the prime minister.
In retrospect, it seems almost a miracle that we were able to achieve our target in merely 7 years. In fact, we achieved the first major breakthrough after just two years with the successful design of the first centrifuge. After four years, we were able to enrich uranium to weapon grade level. In appreciation of our work, Pakistan’s sixth president Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, during a visit to our laboratories in 1981, renamed the organization Dr. A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories (KRL).
It was indeed a great honour.
Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who remained head of the nuclear program from its inception in 1976 until his retirement in 1993, wrote: “The nation owes a debt of gratitude to its nuclear scientists and engineers for transforming an essentially technologically backward country into the seventh nuclear power state in the world.”
“In bringing about this radical change, the most vital and crucial contribution, in my judgment, was made by Dr. A.Q. Khan and his research organization, who designed and initiated a program for the indigenous fabrication of the various highly sophisticated devices and equipment, and their unremitting efforts surmounted all hurdles,” he said.
“Using weapon grade enriched uranium; a nuclear explosive device could be assembled and detonated at short notice. The cloud (of rumours, insecurity and delay) was finally lifted on 28th May, 1998 when not one, but several, devices were successfully tested at Chaghi Hills in Baluchistan.”
The success of Islamabad’s nuclear tests in 1998 showed the world that Pakistani scientists and engineers could make the impossible, possible.
Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan
I retired from KRL on April 1, 2001. Days before my retirement, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who was at that time president, hosted a farewell dinner in honor of Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad and I.
“Tonight my thoughts go back to the eventful day in May 1974 when India conducted its first nuclear test and in the process, altered the security landscape of South Asia to Pakistan’s critical disadvantage,” he said at the Presidency where the dinner was held. “Coming so soon after the 1971 dismemberment of our country, the event served to deepen our sense of insecurity and vulnerability. The situation was critical.”
Gen Musharraf went on to describe our country’s desperation at that time.
“Our security paradigm had changed and with no nuclear weapons program worth the name, Pakistanis literally looked to the sky for help. We did not lose faith. And sure enough, Allah Almighty answered our nation’s prayers,” he said.
“In walked a giant of a man, none other than Dr. Abdul Quadeer Khan, the man who would give Pakistan a nuclear capability single-handedly. His arrival in those difficult days gave hope and cautious optimism to a doubting nation.”
Day and night, my team and I worked hard to beat the odds against us — even to the point of enduring international sanctions and sting operations. Out of the ashes, the pride of Pakistan’s nuclear capability – the Kahuta Engineering Research Laboratories – was born. The facility was later renamed Khan Research Laboratories.
“You are our national hero,” concluded Gen. Musharraf that night, “and nobody can ever take that away from you.”
Today, we as a nation do not command any more respect in the comity of nations than any other struggling, developing country.
It is most unfortunate that, even though we are a nuclear and missile power, our leaders have sold the sovereignty, respect and dignity of Pakistan in regional proxy wars and for their own purposes.
It hurts me and my colleagues to know that. After all we sacrificed and the hard work we put in to turn the country into a nuclear power, in the end we were treated like traitors and the country failed to cash in on the technology it had gained from our efforts.
– Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan NI & Bar, HI is famous Pakistani nuclear scientist and a metallurgical engineer. He is widely regarded as the founder of gas-centrifuge enrichment technology for Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent program. The President, Islamic Republic of Pakistan conferred upon Dr. Khan the award of Nishan-i-Imtiaz on 14 August, 1996 and 14 August, 1998. He is also a recipient of Hilal-i-Imtiaz. Dr. Khan is the only Pakistani to have received the highest civil award of “Nishan-i-Imtiaz” twice. Twitter: @DrAQK_official
