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Munir Ahmad Khan Scientist

Munir Ahmad Khan (Urdu: منير احمد خان‎; b. 20 May 1926 – 22 April 1999; NI HI), was a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a nuclear physicist, who served as the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) from 1972 to 1991. He is credited among the persons who are called as "father of the Pakistan's atomic bomb project", for their role in Pakistan's integrated atomic bomb project— the clandestine Cold war program developed the atomic weapons that ultimately resulted in first successful atomic bomb testing on May 1998 as Chagai-I in Balochistan. These tests are considered one of few milestones in Pakistan's history in which, the nuclear devices were developed and produced under a programme of which Khan served its technical director.A technical adviser to the newly created PAEC since 1958, Khan used that position in IAEA for lobbying for country's industrial nuclear power development. A proponent of an arm race with India, he remained associated with his country's various strategic science projects for more than four decades until his death in 1999. After securing the chairmanship of the Board of Governors of the IAEA from 1986–87, he made a strong case for Pakistan's peaceful development on nuclear energy. Serving till 1999 as visiting professor of physics at the Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Islamabad, his notable achievements as included the establishment of the first international conference in science in Pakistan; that promoted research in physics, mathematical sciences, and science and technology in the country. He also made critical contributions on the development of the nuclear fuel cycle including the setting up of the plutonium program as well as the establishment of reprocessing plants. In 1986, he entered into a comprehensive civil nuclear energy agreement with China, which led the established the C-1 reactor at the Chashma Nuclear Power Complex.