History & Origins of Pakistan's Nuclear Program

There is lot of disinformation about how Pakistan really achieved nuclear technology here’s an attempt.

Very few people know Pakistan started a pilot enrichment program at Sihala in Northern Pakistan and A.Q Khan initially worked under Mahmood as his director.

The story really started on April 19th, 1976 when A.Q Khan infuriatingly wrote a letter to Munir Khan head of the then PAEC that he was not satisfied and that he wanted to work independently and by July 1976 Dr.A.Q Khan with the backing of Prime Minister Bhutto formed Engineering Research Laboratory which later became known as Kahuta Research Laboratory and eventually A.Q Khan Labs - directly under A.Q Khan’s control reporting direct to the prime minister Bhutto. A three member board was enlisted to oversee the work which included A.G.N Kazi (to provide funding), Ghulam Ishaq Khan (to liaise with the military) and Agha Shahi (to deal with foreign relations and protect Khan and his work against foreign pressure).

Project 706

By September 1976 one hundred acre site near Kahuta was personally selected by Dr.A.Q Khan. Kahuta’s secretive work was known as Project 706. It was a challenge that Dr.A.Q Khan and his team took fully knowing that it’s “a make or break� project for the nation apart from being an insurance from future Indian aggression (remembering 1971). The location was more secure than the prime minister’s house and the security was vigilant as they were aware of the US trying to put in spies. Staff and their families were told to socialize with each other strictly and not talk to strangers. It was strictly need to know business.

Earlier India in 1974 conducted nuclear tests which had shaken the complacent non-proliferation system to the core. By 1970’s the CIA was beginning to learn of Pakistan’s interest in nuclear weapons but it was convinced that any Pakistani nuclear weapons program would draw on plutonium not enriched uranium and plutonium was indeed Pakistan’s initial preferred option for the bomb. It is also true that CIA had already managed to recruit spies in Pak’s nuclear program by January 1976 and the human intelligence on ground had pointed out that Pakistan definitely wanted a bomb and the equipment is being supplied by France. In no time the Americans flew to the French and presented evidence and Andre’ Firaud the head of French Atomic Commission who called the deal off – where one avenue was successfully closed by the Americans – A.Q Khan was working on another – “the enrichment route�.

The enrichment route was also much easier to keep clandestine since it did not require a large purchased facility such as a reprocessing plant but could be put together and hidden.

Almost all of the equipment of Kahuta came from Europe thanks to A.Q Khan’s connections.

“A country which could not make sewing needles, good and durable bicycles or even ordinary durable metal rods was embarking on one of the latest and most difficult technologies� A.Q Khan later once said.


The International Market….

A.Q Khan’s teams spanned out across the world usually working out of Pakistan’s embassies and front companies were setup to buy the much needed infrastructure for Kahuta. When they were quoted price, the Pakistani buyers would tell the surprised businessmen to raise it by another 50 percent. It was no wonder that so many suppliers knew they were on to a good thing with Dr.A.Q Khan and kept there mouths shut.

Later that year in 1976 Pakistani team headed by Dr.A.Q Khan himself and his number two scientist G.D Alam went to “Vacuum Valley� a series of small industrial villages in Switzerland that had become a hub for specialized centrifuge equipment where they found a custom made uranium conversion facility which converted uranium into gas to be fed into centrifuge and turns it back into a solid after being enriched. The company executive later explained “If Nuts and bolts can lead to a nuclear weapon – I am guilty as charged�. The unit was so large it had to be flown on three especially chartered C-130’s back to Pakistan. Pakistani Team also bought the much needed vacuum tube and valve equipment required for an enrichment plant. It was apparently legal to sell all this back then.

Yellowcake – The Raw Material…..

Then it was time to buy raw material “uranium� – Germany blocked the sale of the type of uranium yellowcake that Pakistan had looked to buy via a middleman. Pakistan found another route again – the African state of Niger.

Colonel Gadaffi of Libya was used through personal contacts of Prime Minister Bhutto. Gadaffi saw the selling of uranium to Pakistan as a means of reinforcing Libya’s role in Pakistan’s nuclear program since he earlier invested an undisclosed amount in Pak’s Nukes Program. So the uranium-type which Pakistan wanted was flown in from Agadez (Niger) to Tripoli (Libya) and finally to Karachi in Pakistan.

The Americans got to know about the shipments via India on January 1977 but thought it was for energy needs. Eventually when the shipments were stopped because of IAEA Pakistan like most of the other aspirant nuclear countries would work to develop it’s own indigenous uranium mining capacity.


By 1978-1979 Pakistan’s nuclear aspirations caught the attention of European authorities too but they underestimated Pakistan. A key moment came in Britian in 1978 when the sale of a specialist high frequency inverters became public. The inverters were the same type used by British Nuclear Fuels in their uranium enrichment. After the sale of the initial batch a scientist who worked at the company said on BBC that anybody who was anybody in the company had pretty shrewd idea what the inverters were intended for but everyone thought that the Pakistanis would not know what to do with them. There was a company joke that the inverters would rust away in cases. That mix of willful naiveté and arrogance about Pakistan’s capability would prove to be a recurring theme. A few days later the rest of the batch promised to Pakistan was stopped by the British government after an uproar at the House of Commons but by then Pakistan already had enough inverters to run several thousand centrifuges and the knowledge to make more themselves.

Bhutto, Zia and Americans….

Meanwhile at CIA headquarters in Virginia - experts were beginning to put together the pieces of what was happening in Pakistan. By 1979 they realized that A.Q Khan and his team had brought together pretty much everything to make his own centrifuge plant and the US convinced his European Allies to stop dealing with Pakistan but it was too late by then as many of the key parts were in Pakistani hands already. Kahuta was on full scale production!

By 1978 Bhutto the man behind “Nuclear Pakistan Vision� was behind bars and General Zia ul Haq was in-charge of Pakistan who showed no sign of wavering in his support for the program or altering the policy which further perturbed the Americans who before promised to make an example of Bhutto thinking that the new ruler of Pakistan would role the project back. They were obviously wrong – the armed forces was in no position to roll the program back because of two reasons: I) Public Pressure II) To counter India’s Conventional Might.

Bhutto earlier had kept the program under his own wing with scientists reporting directly to him but by now the army took over control of the program and controls it under the National Command and Control Centre to this day. Dr.A.Q Khan himself was sorry to lose his initial sponsor and even requested mercy for Bhutto but Bhutto was hung in 1979 but to America’s surprise business was as usual in Kahuta.

American Fury, Plans for Kahuta…..

The ever furious US now considered more drastic options to deal with Pakistan’s nuclear program and Kahuta including an air strike against Kahuta presented in a paper by Ambassador Gerrard Smith and another time by Joseph Nye but were rejected by then Secretary of State Cyrus Vance considering it too “risky� compare that to today’s situation and the Americans are sending drones inside main-land Pakistan.

Pakistan meanwhile took extra precautions and installed French anti-aircraft missiles at Kahuta to protect against any misadventures from Americans, Indians or even Israelis.

Meanwhile Kahuta became a legend and a place for curiosity for western diplomats – it was like Area 51 of Pakistan – non-existent officially.

During one of the visits US Senator Galluci showed satellite pictures of Kahuta to General Zia, his reply was it was “just a cowshed�. Gallucci took a risk and took a small party - picked up a jeep from the embassy motor pool and headed out for Kahuta and talked his way past a guard by saying that they were going for a picnic and glimpsed Kahuta’s sprawling workshops from the hillside. He told Zia later that it was “the largest cowshed in the universe�.

Unfortunately next week French ambassador tried to replicate the feat and he and his driver were badly beaten. Zia reportedly said, “I wish it had been the American bastard�.

In December 1979 the whole strategic calculus over US-Pakistan relations was transformed thanks to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which provided critical years for Pakistani procurement from the West.

It’s interesting to note that the funding given to KRL went through GHQ Catering Department via a Brigadier who was in charge of the catering and entertainment department.
In 1983-84, Pakistan crossed the threshold of weapons-grade uranium production, and by 1985 it is thought to have produced enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon.

In 1984 Reagan warned Pakistan of “grave consequences� if it enriches uranium above 5% and by late 1984 Pakistan acquired full nuclear capability for military purposes.
Pakistan continued advancing its uranium enrichment program, and according to Pakistani sources, the nation acquired the ability to carry out a nuclear explosion by 1985-86.


On 28TH May, 1998 Pakistan conducted her first of the six nuclear tests in response to India’s five nuclear tests earlier the same month.