Nuclear Pakistan - credit where it is due

[ghazi52]

Pakistan’s nuclear status, a generation’s effort, not of Sharif family: Faraz

May 29, 2020

ISLAMABAD - Information Minister Senator Shibli Faraz asked Maryam Nawaz not to associate the hard work and efforts of a generation that made Pakistan a nuclear power with her family.

In a tweet message, the minister said that the nation was well aware of those who left their workers alone and fled away, he said adding that those who could not remain loyal to their own narratives, how could they be expected to fulfill promises made with the people. He said that the loyalty of the PML- N leadership was not with the homeland but was with money.

He said that the manifestation of their loyalty could be seen all over the world in the form of Avanfield and other properties. The minister said that the nation would never forgive those who ruined the future of the nation’s children to make their own children’s lives.

Faraz said that Pakistan had the honour of becoming the only nuclear power in the Islamic world on this day. Information minister said that Pakistan’s nuclear power was the guarantor of the safety and security of the country and its people.

The Minister said that national dignity and integrity was paramount for the nation which stood united for its defence and development of the country.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

• Bhutto.
• Abdus Salam

 

[ziaulislam]

the nuclear bomb was ready by 1988..even before sharif got into politics..
if any Bhutto & Zia were the people who spearheaded and FINISHED the program

 

[ghazi52]

Plus large number of scientists / Engineers, ISI. Army, Individuals and many more. Salute to them.....................

 

[ghazi52]

‘Nuclear skill helped Pakistan to earn $7.4B’

Dispelling the impression that pursuing nuclear technology was a drain on national resources, a top Pakistani nuclear scientist claimed that its peaceful use helped the country to add 1,200 billion rupees ($7.4 billion) to its national exchequer.

Participating in a webinar program to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of Pakistan’s nuclear testing organized by Islamabad-based think-tank, the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Ansar Pervez, the former chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, said that the nuclear technology was being used for peaceful purposes in diverse sectors including medicine, health, agriculture, industry, pollution control, water resources management, and safe and sustainable electricity production.

He said that it allowed Pakistan to develop 100 new crop varieties, which added $7.4 billion to the treasury. He further said that 800,000 cancer patients are being treated every year by hospitals using nuclear radiation.

The nuclear program, Pervez said, has not only ensured its national security and regional peace but also helped pursue at least 12 sustainable development goals and promote socio-economic development.

Pakistan is one of only 13 countries across the globe capable of sharing its nuclear knowledge and expertise with other countries for peaceful purposes.

Director General of Arms Control and Disarmament Kamran Akhtar stated that the huge Indian defense acquisitions and developments in the areas of artificial intelligence, cyber security and space militarization are destabilizing for the region. He said the international community must exercise care and caution in sharing its advanced nuclear and other related technologies with India.

“Pakistan can be compared with any developed country in terms of its nuclear expertise, knowledge and capabilities, and is completely qualified to become an active and productive member of the strategic export control regime of the world,” he added.

Naeem Salik, the former director of Strategic Plans Division, said Pakistan became a nuclear weapon state once its security needs were neither understood nor met by the world and its several arms control initiatives were not reciprocated. He said Pakistan has a credible minimum deterrence posture which provides Pakistan security without engaging in a costly arms race with India.

Khalid Rahman, the executive president of IPS, said the unparalleled success of Pakistan’s nuclear program provides a principle to follow in policymaking to address various issues of national significance.

“If we understand this principle and pursue our other national goals with similar zeal, spirit, determination, consistency and unity, then we can effectively meet all other challenges that our nation faces,” he argued

© Aa.com.tr

 

[ghazi52]

Pakistan's Nuclear Posture: 22 years later?

 

[ghazi52]

The governments of India and Pakistan make statements about some of their missile tests but provide little information about the status or size of their arsenals. North Korea has acknowledged conducting nuclear weapon and missile tests but provides no information about its nuclear weapon capabilities. Israel has a long-standing policy of not commenting on its nuclear arsenal.

World nuclear forces, January 2020

Country......Deployed warheads.....Other warheads...Total 2020......Total 2019

USA........... 1 750........................... 4 050................... 5 800............ 6 185
Russia........ 1 570........................... 4 805................... 6 375............ 6 500
UK............. 120.............................. 95........................ 215............... 200
France........ 280.............................. 10........................ 290............... 300
China......... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,320....................... 320............... 290
India.......... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 150..................... 150............... 130–140
Pakistan..... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 160...................... 160............... 150–160
Israel......... ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 90........................ 90................. 80–90
North Korea.. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, (30–40)............... (30–40)........ (20–30)

..........................................................................................................................................................

Total........ 3 720............................. 9 680................... 13 400........... 13 865


Source: SIPRI Yearbook 2020

 

[Thorough Pro]

There are many Pakistanis who risked their lives for buying and exporting key equipment to Pakistan, got caught and are rotting in foreign jails. Never forget to pray for them.

Plus large number of scientists / Engineers, ISI. Army, Individuals and many more. Salute to them.....................

 

[peagle]

There are many Pakistanis who risked their lives for buying and exporting key equipment to Pakistan, got caught and are rotting in foreign jails. Never forget to pray for them.

A beautiful reminder, thank you.

I admit I for one had forgotten them.

God bless them all, Ameen.

 

[ghazi52]

Dr. I.H. Usmani

(Dr.Ishrat Hussain Usmani, Chairman of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission (first left), and Minister of Energy and Electrification of the USSR Pyotr Neporozhny (first right) during talks in Moscow. 1968).

Dr. I.H. Usmani was one of chief architect of country's nuclear power, (15 April 1917 – 17 June 1992) was a Pakistani bureaucrat and an atomic physicist who was the second chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) from 1960 to 1972; as well as the associate director of the Space Research Commission.
During his career, he was also the Chairman of the Board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 1962 to 1963, and played a vital role there in country's peaceful development of nuclear technology to acquire the facilities. To his peer, he is remembered as one of chief architect of country's nuclear power expansion and also given co-credited to established country's first nuclear power plant in Karachi in co-operation with Canada, with Abdus Salam
Usmani was born into a respected, cultural, upper middle class, and an educated family of Delhi and Aligarh. After his school education in Aligarh he joined his maternal uncle Dr Khwaja Abdul Hamied, the founder of CIPLA and a pioneer of pharmaceutical industry in India, and joined the St Xavier's College Bombay from where he obtained in 19, his BS (with honours) in Physics and later obtained MSc in Physics from Bombay University. In 1937, the Ishrat Usmani proceeded to the Imperial College, University of London, for research in atomic physics with the Nobel Laureate Professor P.M.S. Blackett, and he produced a thesis entitled "A study of the growth of compound crystals by electron diffraction" in 1939.[5] He completed his doctorate in Atomic Physics from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, after writing a brief thesis on Electron diffraction, prior to start of World War II.[5] He thereafter successfully appeared in the Indian Civil Service Examination (ICS)and became the first ever entrant to that service with a PhD. On Partition of the undivided India into post independent India and Pakistan he opted to serve in Pakistan and served the Government of Punjab.
In 1950, while at London, he was personally invited and delegated by American nuclear physicists dr. Alvin M. Weinberg, dr. Robert Charpi, Karl Z. Morgan— the scientists who had worked in Manhattan Project— to the United States where he carried out his research in nuclear power and reactor technology at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory whereas he served as a director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Usmani returned to Pakistan in 1954, joining the Directorate of Science the same year. He played a vital role and served in several senior administrative positions in Pakistan Government. In 1958, Usmani volunteered to join the newly established nuclear government agency, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, and personally tasked himself to build the nuclear power program. Dr.Nazir Ahmed (physicist) was the chairman of the Commission at that time. Usmani played an important role in formulating the nuclear policy for Government of Pakistan. His recommendation and the newly proposed nuclear policy were gladly accepted by the then prime minister of Pakistan Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy and his position in the government was upgraded to Minister of State. In 1959 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who then Energy Minister in Ayub Khan's Cabinet, appointed him as a member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

 

[ghazi52]

Pakistan most improved country in handling weapons-usable N-materials

NTI says Pakistan has increased its score in Global Norms by 1 point as it subscribed to nuclear security INFCIRC.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan improved its score by seven points and is the most improved country with weapons-usable nuclear materials. Its Security and Control Measures score increased by 25 points due to actions to strengthen its regulations.

THE NTI (the Nuclear Threat Initiative) Nuclear Security Index 2020 says that Pakistan has also increased its score in Global Norms by1 point because it subscribed to a nuclear security INFCIRC.

Pakistan scores high (67-100) in Domestic Commitments and Capacity, medium (34-66) in both Security and Control Measures and Global Norms, and low (0-33) in Quantities and Sites, owing to its continued increases in quantities of weapons-usable nuclear materials, and low in Risk Environment.

Commenting on Pakistan’s improved position on the index, United States’ former diplomat and an international expert on nonproliferation, disarmament Laura Kennedy tweeted: “One welcome bit of news reported by NTIindex is that Pakistan ranked as most improved in security of those countries holding nuclear materials.”

 

[Sunny4pak]

NTI INDEX 2020 | PAKISTAN's RANKING IN NUCLEAR SECURITY

@Zarvan @Irfan Faiz @Irfan Baloch @Rafi @StormBreaker @jupiter2007

 

[ghazi52]

 

[V. Makarov]

I found absence of Munir Ahmad Khan in the original post a bit disturbing.

 

[ghazi52]

Remembering Unsung Heroes: Munir Ahmed Khan
The tremendous contribution made by Munir Ahmed Khan in making Pakistan nuclear.

By Usman Shabbir

The Multan Conference, Jan 20, 1972: The day the bomb was born

Bhutto began the nuclear quest with his characteristic sense of urgency. He had taken power in mid-December 1971, and in January he hastily called together some fifty of Pakistan's top scientists and government officials for what was to be a very secret meeting. At the time, the new government was still in a state of enormous confusion, and Bhutto's aides originally scheduled in the meeting for the town of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan. It was January, with winter storms blowing down from Afghanistan to the north, and Quetta had no facilities adequately heated for the selected scientists and bureaucrats to meet in. No one complained, when, the government laid on military planes to fly the freezing scientists south and east to the town of Multan. The day was sparkling clear, and Bhutto convened the meeting under a brightly coloured canvas canopy, on the lawn of a stately old Colonial mansion. The scientists and administrators who were there were far and away the best brains in Pakistan, and some were as good as could be found anywhere in the world. The Pakistani people and their Islamic forebears had historically nurtured a rich scientific tradition, and the country, though in some ways underdeveloped could count on a surprisingly strong scientific establishment. Three names are especially worth remembering.

Abdus Salam - the Professor to his worshipping younger colleagues - had founded the Third World-oriented International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, and would go on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979.

Dr. Ishrat Usmani had gained prominence as Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and would go on to build his reputation as an international civil servant specializing in energy questions at the United Nations.

And the man Bhutto would name to replace Usmani as head of the nuclear programme and the PAEC till his retirement in 1991, Munir Ahmed Khan, had just come with high marks from the staff of the very organization that is supposed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Munir Ahmed Khan was a nuclear engineer of international standing, and he spent nearly 14 years at the IAEA in Vienna, where he was the Head of Reactor Engineering, before joining PAEC, and he had organized more than twenty technical and international conferences on heavy water reactors, advanced gas cooled reactors, plutonium utilization, and small and medium power reactors. In the late 1970s, Director General of IAEA offered him the post of Deputy Director General in Vienna, but he refused it to accomplish his mission in Pakistan. He was the first Asian scientist to be appointed at the IAEA and later in 1986, he was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors of IAEA in Vienna.

There was great deal of enthusiasm and joy. Bhutto started slowly. He spoke of Pakistan's defeat in the war with India, and vowed that he would vindicate the country's honour. He said that he had always wanted Pakistan to take the nuclear road, but nobody had listened to him. Now fate had placed him in a position where he could make the decision, he had the people of Pakistan behind him, and he wanted to go ahead. Pakistan was going to have the bomb, and the scientists sitting under the shamiana at Multan were going to make it for him. So Bhutto had all these boys together, these scientists, and there were senior people, very senior people, and junior people, and youngsters fresh with their PhDs in nuclear physics, and he said: Look, we're going to have the bomb.” He said “Can you give it to me?” So, they started saying “Oh yes, yes, yes. You can have it. You can have it.” But Bhutto wanted more. He paused them. “How long will it take?” he asked. There was a lively debate on the time needed to make the bomb, and finally one scientist dared to say that maybe it could be done in five years. Bhutto smiled, lifted his hand, and dramatically thrust forward three fingers.” Three years”, he said.” I want it in three years”. The atmosphere suddenly became electric. It was then that one of the junior men - S.A.Butt, who under Munir Khan's guiding hand would come to play a major role in making the bomb possible - jumped to his feet and clamoured for his leader's attention. “It can be done in three years”, Butt shouted excitedly. Bhutto was very much amused and he said, “Well, much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, this is a very serious political decision, which Pakistan must make, and perhaps all Third World countries must make one day, because it is coming. So can you do it? “And they said, “Yes, we can do it, given the resources and given the facilities. ”Bhutto's answer was simple.” I shall find you the resources and I shall find you the facilities”.

This then was the day the bomb was born, the meeting at Multan that set the seal on Pakistan's nuclear future. From that moment, Pakistan would begin a national crash programme to get the bomb. It was a historic move.

The meeting set the stage and also helped select the actors. Most of the scientists came along. Few did not. Even Z.A.Bhutto, for all his powers of persuasion, could not convince some of the senior men, including the longtime friend and adviser, the future Nobel laureate Abdus Salam. Bhutto probably feared that any open condemnation of the project from Salam could severely split Pakistan's nuclear scientists, many of whom revered him. His opposition could also trigger alarm bells among the scientists and diplomats around the world. So some time after the meeting, a special emissary was sent to Salam, who had returned to his home in Britain, to brief him on the programme and to assure him that it was really peaceful in intent.

A second, lesser obstacle was the longtime head of the PAEC, Dr Ishrat Usmani, who had opposed the road to the bomb because at the time Pakistan did not have the necessary infrastructure needed for such a technologically giant and ambitious project. Given Usmani's reluctance, Bhutto fired Usmani, promoting him upstairs to the post of Secretary of the newly created Ministry of Science and Technology. He became a figurehead and soon left Pakistan, taking a post at the UN. In his place, as the new Chairman of the PAEC and the man who would make the nuclear dream come true, Bhutto named one of the enthusiasts of the Multan meeting, Munir Ahmed Khan. Trained at the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States and a long time staff member of the IAEA, Munir Khan outlived his patron Bhutto to become the spirit and the symbol of the Third World nuclear ambitions, both on the civilian side and in the development of nuclear weapons.

If one is to go back to a founding figure, the PAEC considered the acquisition of nuclear technology capable of conversion to weapons technology as early as 1955, with the help of President Eisenhower's Atom's for Peace Programme.

The foundation of any nuclear weapons programme is the production of the special nuclear materials required for weapons - plutonium or highly enriched uranium for a basic programme for producing fission weapons. Without these materials no weapons can be made. The initial direction taken by Pakistan was to pursue the use of plutonium.