Munir Ahmad Khan

Munir Ahmad Khan (Urdu: منير احمد خان‎; b. 20 May 1926 – 22 April 1999; ), was a Pakistani nuclear engineer, scientist, who served as the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) from 1972 to 1991. He is credited along with Zulfikar Bhutto (former Prime minister), on the technical side as the "father of the Pakistan's atomic bomb project", for his 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 (see Chagai-I and Chagai-II) in Chagai Weapon-testing Laboratories; these tests are considered one of few milestones in Pakistan's history in which, the devices were developed and produced under a projective programme of which Khan served its technical director.

Since 1958, Khan served as the technical adviser to the newly created PAEC, and used his position in the International Atomic Energy Agency for lobbying for country's industrial nuclear power development. He was a proponent of a arm race with India whilst remaining 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 International Atomic Energy Agency from 1986–87, he made a strong case for Pakistan's peaceful development on nuclear energy. His notable achievements as Chairman of PAEC include the establishment of the first international physics conference in Pakistan; indigenous development of nuclear weapons design, fabrication and testing infrastructure; promoting research in science and technology in the country; the development of the nuclear fuel cycle facilities which produced nuclear fuel for the Kanupp-I after an embargo was placed on Pakistan after 1974, and uranium hexafluoride for the uranium enrichment program; and setting up of the plutonium program at the Khushab Nuclear Complex, and the New Laboratories reprocessing plant. In 1986, he guided, assisted and later on signed the civil nuclear energy agreement with China, which led the established the C-1 reactor at the Chashma Nuclear Power Complex.