Abdul Qadeer Khan

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer who is widely regarded as the "father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program". He was born in 1936 in Bhopal, India, and moved to Pakistan after the partition in 1947. He obtained his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Karachi and his master's degree in metallurgy from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He also earned his doctorate in engineering from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. He worked as a metallurgist at the Urenco Group, a uranium enrichment company, where he gained access to the secrets of gas centrifuge technology. He returned to Pakistan in 1975 and joined the clandestine efforts to develop nuclear weapons under the supervision of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He founded the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in 1976 and became its chief scientist and director. He led the team that successfully enriched uranium using gas centrifuges and designed and tested nuclear warheads. He was also involved in the development of ballistic missiles and nuclear-capable aircraft. He was hailed as a national hero and received several awards and honors, including the Nishan-i-Imtiaz and the Hilal-i-Imtiaz. However, he was also accused of being the mastermind of a nuclear proliferation network that smuggled nuclear technology and know-how to Iran, North Korea, Libya, and possibly other countries. He was arrested in 2004 and confessed to his involvement in a televised address. He was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf but placed under house arrest until 2009. He later retracted his confession and claimed that he was made a scapegoat by the government. He died in 2021 at the age of 85 after being hospitalized with Covid-19. He was given a state funeral and buried with full honors in Islamabad.