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1. Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan was born on 1 April 1936 in Bhopal, a city then in the
erstwhile British Indian princely state of Bhopal State, and now the capital
city of Madhya Pradesh. His family is of Orakzai (a Pashtun tribe) origin.
His father, Abdul Ghafoor, was a schoolteacher who once worked for the
Ministry of Education, and his mother, Zulekha, was a housewife with a
very religious mind. His older siblings, along with other family members,
had emigrated to Pakistan during the bloody partition of India.
Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan is a 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. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program is a source of extreme national pride. As its
“father”, A.Q. Khan, who headed Pakistan’s nuclear program for some 25 years, is considered a
national hero.
Journey to a New Home
On a hot day in 1952, a teenage boy slowly walked across a desert to cross the border into the
newly formed country of Pakistan. He endured many hardships to make it to his new home and
arrived with almost nothing but the clothes he was wearing and a few books. This remarkable
boy, named Abdul Qadeer (AQ) Khan, had grown up in British India, but he would soon
become one of Pakistan's greatest heroes and most controversial figures.
Early life and Career
After studying at St. Anthony’s High School, Khan joined the D.
J. Science College of Karachi, where he took physics and
mathematics. His teacher at the college was famous solar
physicist Dr. Bashir Syed. Khan earned a B.Sc. degree in
physical metallurgy at the University of Karachi in 1960.
Khan transferred to the University of Delft and eventually
completed a master's degree in engineering. He and Henny then
moved to Belgium, where he continued his education at Catholic University in Leuven. In 1972,
Khan graduated with a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering and went to work for a consulting
company in Amsterdam. This company, known as FDO, happened to specialize in the production
of a type of ultracentrifuge commonly used to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons. This
process was top secret, of course, but Khan easily received a security clearance and soon settled
into a middle-class life in Amsterdam with his wife and two daughters.
Khan accepted a job as an inspector of weight and measures in Karachi after graduation. He later
resigned and went to work in Netherlands in the 1970’s. Khan gained fame as a talented scientist

2. at the nuclear plant he worked in. He had special access to the most restricted areas of the
URENCO facility. He could also read the secret documentation on the gas centrifuge technology.
In December, 1974, he came back to Pakistan and tried to convince the Prime Minister, Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto, to adopt his Uranium route rather than Plutonium route in building nuclear weapons
After his role in Pakistan’s nuclear program, Khan re-organized the Pakistani’s national space
agency, SUPARCO. In the late of 1990s, Khan played an important role in Pakistan’s space
program, particularly the Pakistan’s first Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) project and the
Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV). Khan’s unrestricted publicity of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and
ballistic missile capabilities brought humiliation to the Pakistan’s government. The United States
began to think that Pakistan was giving nuclear weapons technology to North Korea, to get
ballistic missile technology in exchange. Khan also came under renewed scrutiny following the
September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. He allegedly sold nuclear technology to Iran. However,
he was pardoned in 2004, but placed under house arrest.
On the 22nd of August 2006, the Pakistani government declared that Khan had been diagnosed
with prostate cancer and was undergoing treatment. He was released from house arrest in
February 2009.
Other Contributions:
A.Q. Khan initially worked with Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), headed by
Munir Ahmad Khan, for a short period. But since he was not satisfied with this set-up, Bhutto
gave A.Q. Khan in July 1976 autonomous control of the Kahuta Enrichment Project that had
been already operative as Project-706 since 1974, two years prior to A.Q. Khan’s arrival in
Pakistan. When Dr. A.Q. Khan joined, it was called Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL).
However, on 01 May 1981, ERL was renamed through an order by Gen. Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq
as Dr. A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories (KRL). On May 28, 1998, Pakistan successfully tested
its first nuclear device and emerged as the only Muslim country to join the nuclear club.
The scientific contributions of Dr. A. Q. Khan have been recognized in several ways. As an
active scientist and technologist, he has published more than 188 scientific research papers in
international journals. Under his supervision, the process of Uranium enrichment was effectively
accomplished and significant development was also made with the successful test firing of
Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles, Ghauri 1, in April 1998 and Ghauri II in April 1999. Dr
Khan received honorary degrees of Doctor of Science from the University of Karachi in 1993,
from Baqai Medical University in 1998, Doctor of Science from Hamdard University, Karachi
in1999, and from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore in December 2000. For
his contributions in the field of science and technology, Dr Khan was awarded Nishan-i-Imtiaz in
1996 and again in 1998. Thus he is the only Pakistani to have received twice the highest civil
award. He is also a recipient of Hilal-i-Imtiaz During 1990s, there were reports in the Western
media that Dr. A. Q. Khan had been involved in the sale of centrifuge parts to Libya and Iran. In
November 2003, Pakistan was warned of possible nuclear leaks and according to an IAEA
report, Dr. Khan was accused of having at the centre of an international proliferation network.
Consequently he was retired from KRL and was appointed as Advisor to the President.

3. Khan was also a key figure in the establishment of several engineering universities in Pakistan.
He set up a metallurgy and material science institute in Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of
Engineering Sciences and Technology. The place, where Khan served as both executive member
and director, has been named as Dr. A. Q. Khan Department of Metallurgical Engineering and
Material Sciences. Another school, Dr. A. Q. Khan Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic
Engineering at Karachi University, has also been named in his honor. Khan thus played a vital
role in bringing metallurgical engineering courses to various universities of Pakistan.
Despite his international image, Khan remains widely popular among Pakistanis and he is
considered domestically to be one of the most-influential and respected scientists in Pakistan.