Mohammad Abdus Salam was a Pakistani theoretical physicist. He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory. He was the first Pakistani and the first Muslim from an Islamic country to receive a Nobel Prize in science and the second from an Islamic country to receive any Nobel Prize, after Anwar Sadat of Egypt.
Pakistan is one of nine states that possess nuclear weapons. Pakistan began developing nuclear weapons in January 1972 under Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who delegated the program to the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Munir Ahmad Khan with a commitment to having the device ready by the end of 1976. Since PAEC, which consisted of over twenty laboratories and projects under reactor physicist Munir Ahmad Khan, was falling behind schedule and having considerable difficulty producing fissile material, Abdul Qadeer Khan, a metallurgist working on centrifuge enrichment for Urenco, joined the program at the behest of the Bhutto administration by the end of 1974. As pointed out by Houston Wood, "The most difficult step in building a nuclear weapon is the production of fissile material"; as such, this work in producing fissile material as head of the Kahuta Project was pivotal to Pakistan developing the capability to detonate a nuclear weapon by the end of 1984.
The Flight Test Range (FTR) at Sonmiani Beach is a primary rocket launch site in Balochistan, approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) west of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
The Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, or KRL for short, is a federally funded, multi-program national research institute and national laboratory site primarily dedicated to uranium enrichment, supercomputing and fluid mechanics. It is managed by the Ministry of Energy for the Government of Pakistan via partnership between the universities through the security contractor Strategic Plans Division Force due to its sensitivity. The site is located in Kahuta, a short distance north-east of Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.
Badr-A was the first artificial and the first digital communications satellite launched by Pakistan's national space authority — the SUPARCO — in 1990. The Badr-A was Pakistan's first indigenously developed and manufactured digital communications and an experimental artificial satellite which was launched into low Earth orbit by Pakistan on 16 July 1990, through a Chinese carrier rocket. The launch ushered new military, technological, and scientific developments in Pakistan and also provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere. Originally planned to be launched from the United States in 1986, the Challenger disaster further delayed the launch of the satellite which changed the plan. After the People's Republic of China offered Pakistan to use its facility, the Badr-A was finally launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in 1990 on Long March 2E. Badr-A travelled at 17,500 miles per hour (28,200 km/h), taking 96.3 minutes to complete an orbit, and emitted radio signals at the 145 to 435 MHz bands which were operated by Pakistan Amateur Radio Society (PARS). The Badr-A successfully completed its designed life, and a new satellite was proposed to be developed.
Dr. Samar Mubarakmand is a Pakistani nuclear physicist known for his research in gamma spectroscopy and experimental development of the linear accelerator.
The Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, commonly referred to as SUPARCO, is the independent agency of Government of Pakistan, responsible for national civilian space program.
Rehbar is a series of sounding rockets launched into the upper atmosphere by Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO). Rehbar-I was the first rocket launched by SUPARCO, on 7 June 1962. Rehbar-I was a two-staged solid fuel rocket.
The Badr-B is the second spacecraft and the first Earth observation satellite launched into Earth orbit on 10 December 2001 at 09:15 by the SUPARCO — Pakistan's national space agency. Badr-B is a microsatellite, with a mass of ~70 kg, and contained the computerized system to conduct the studies on the gravity gradient. Badr-B is a research satellite to explore the upper atmosphere and the near space, and carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research.
Munir Ahmad Khan, NI, HI, FPAS, was a Pakistani nuclear reactor physicist who is credited, among others, with being the "father of the atomic bomb program" of Pakistan for their leading role in developing their nation's nuclear weapons during the successive years after the war with India in 1971.
Ishrat Hussain Usmani NI, best known as I. H. Usmani, was a Pakistani atomic physicist, and later a public official who chaired the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) from 1960 to 1971 as well as overseeing the establishment of the Space Research Commission.
Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi, SI, HI, known as Hafeez Qureshi, was a Pakistani nuclear scientist and a mechanical engineer, known for his classified work at WGS at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).
For other people with the same or similar name, see Abdul Majid
Air Commodore Władysław Józef Marian Turowicz, usually referred to as W. J. M. Turowicz, was a Polish-Pakistani aviator, military scientist and aeronautical engineer.
Project-706, also known as Project-786 was the codename of a research and development program to develop Pakistan's first nuclear weapons. The program was initiated by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1974 in response to the Indian nuclear tests conducted in May 1974. During the course of this program, Pakistani nuclear scientists and engineers developed the requisite nuclear infrastructure and gained expertise in the extraction, refining, processing and handling of fissile material with the ultimate goal of designing a nuclear device. These objectives were achieved by the early 1980s with the first successful cold test of a Pakistani nuclear device in 1983. The two institutions responsible for the execution of the program were the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and the Kahuta Research Laboratories, led by Munir Ahmed Khan and Abdul Qadeer Khan respectively. In 1976 an organization called Special Development Works (SDW) was created within the Pakistan Army, directly under the Chief of the Army Staff (Pakistan) (COAS). This organization worked closely with PAEC and KRL to secretly prepare the nuclear test sites in Baluchistan and other required civil infrastructure.
The International Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary Needs (INSC), was founded by Nobel laureate in Physics Dr. Abdus Salam (then-Science Advisor to the Prime minister) to promote physics and scientific research activities in Pakistan. Having suggested by Professor Abdus Salam to the Government of Pakistan, it was established by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission's chairman Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan.
Dr. Tariq Mustafa is a Pakistani mechanical engineer with a first class honors degree from London University specializing in nuclear and space technology. He led the establishment of Pakistan's Space and Rocket Technology Program and subsequently, served in high ranking positions in the Government of Pakistan as Federal Secretary of the Ministries of Defense Production, Science and Technology, Public Sector Industry, Petroleum and Natural Resources and Privatization. He is the founder and current Chairperson of Pakistan's National Paralympics Committee (PNPC), President of the South Asian Paralympics Committee and the Vice President of the Asian Paralympic Committee. His lifelong interests are reason, revelation and the future of humanity. He has been active in discourse about science and religion and is the author of The Case for God - Based on Reason and Evidence, not Groundless Faith. In September 2015, he has been appointed as a member of the Governing Council of the Institute for Religion in the Age of Science (IRAS).
Dr. Athar Ali was a Pakistani system engineer and a rocket scientist who was murdered in Karachi on 4 October 2003. He was an expert in missile technology and was the senior scientist at the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) during the time of the development of Shaheen missile guidance system. SUPARCO is a Pakistani governmental agency. His death led to the mass demonstration in a Shiite community in Karachi.
The Hatf Program was the classified program by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Pakistan for the comprehensive research and the development of guided missiles. Initiatives began in 1986–87 that also received support from Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in a direct response to India's equivalent program in 1989.
