Project-706

Project-706, also known as Project-786 was the codename of a research and development program to develop Pakistan's first nuclear weapons. The program was initiated by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1974 in response to the Indian nuclear tests conducted in May 1974. During the course of this program, Pakistani nuclear scientists and engineers developed the requisite nuclear infrastructure and gained expertise in the extraction, refining, processing and handling of fissile material with the ultimate goal of designing a nuclear device. These objectives were achieved by the early 1980s with the first successful cold test of a Pakistani nuclear device in 1983. The two institutions responsible for the execution of the program were the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and the Kahuta Research Laboratories, led by Munir Ahmed Khan and Abdul Qadeer Khan respectively. In 1976 an organization called Special Development Works (SDW) was created within the Pakistan Army, directly under the Chief of the Army Staff (Pakistan) (COAS). This organization worked closely with PAEC and KRL to secretly prepare the nuclear test sites in Baluchistan and other required civil infrastructure.

It was a major scientific effort of Pakistan. Project-706 refers specifically to the period from 1974 to 1983 when it was under the control of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and later on under the military administration of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. The program's roots lay in scientists' fears since 1967 that India was also developing nuclear weapons of its own.

Time'' magazine has called Project-706 Pakistan's equivalent of the United States Manhattan Project. The project initially cost US$450 million (raised by both Libya and Saudi Arabia) and was approved by Bhutto in 1972.

Project-706 led to the creation of multiple production and research sites that operated in extreme secrecy and ambiguity. Apart from research and development the project was also charged with gathering intelligence on Indian nuclear efforts. The Project was disbanded when the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) carried out the first cold test of a miniature nuclear device on 11 March 1983. Scientists and military officers who participated in the Project were given leadership positions in their respective services, and conferred with high civil decorations by the Government of Pakistan.

Origins

Proposals

The history of Pakistani interest into nuclear science goes back to late 1948 when a large number of scientists, mathematicians, chemists, and physicists moved to Pakistan from India on the request of Prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan. The research in nuclear technology was encouraged by Mark Oliphant who, in 1948, wrote a letter to Muhammad Ali Jinnah to engage research in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. According to Mark Oliphant, no other Muslim scientist was available in the South Asia other than Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry, who could prove useful for the newly independent country in the field of nuclear technology. A letter was directed to Chaudhry, who migrated to Pakistan in 1948 and established High-Tension Laboratory in 1952. On 8 December 1953, US President Dwight Eisenhower launched the Atoms for Peace program, where Pakistan was one of the first countries to sign the treaty. On 8 December 1953, the Pakistani media welcomed the proposed peaceful use of atomic energy, but Foreign minister Sir Zaf-rulla Khan stated that Pakistan did not have a policy towards the atom bomb. In 1956, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was founded and its first chairman was Nazir Ahmad, and Science Advisor to the Prime minister, Salimuzzaman Siddiqui served agency's first Technical (member). In 1958, the PAEC drafted a proposal to the military government of Field Marshal Ayub Khan for the acquisition of either the Canadian NRX heavy water reactor or the CP-5 reactor, at the Argonne National Laboratory. However, Ayub Khan's military government vetoed the proposal.

In March 1958, Nazir Ahmad made another proposal to the chairman of the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) for setting up a heavy water nuclear plant with a production capacity of 50 kg of heavy water per day at Multan in conjunction with a planned fertilizer factory. However, the PIDC did not act on the PAEC's proposal. Field Marshal Ayub Khan rejected the proposal and instead transferred Nazir Ahmad immediately to the Federal Bureau of Statistics. In March 1959, the PAEC entered an agreement with United States Atomic Energy Commission, in which the United States agreed to provide a 5 MW pool-type reactor. In 1960, a bureaucrat named Ishrat Hussain Usmani succeeded Ahmad as chairman of the PAEC. Usmani played a pivotal role in the construction and development of Karachi Nuclear Power Plant by setting up uranium and plutonium exploration committees throughout the country. Many nuclear research institutes were also established, and work was begun to set up surveying the suitable sites for nuclear power plants.

In 1965, Science Advisor to the Government Abdus Salam traveled to United States to sign an agreement with the government of United States to provide a research reactor in Rawalpindi. In United States, Salam also held meeting with Edward Durell Stone, where he signed another contract. It was under Abdus Salam's leadership that Stone designed and then led construction of a nuclear research institute in Nilore.

The same year, the PAEC entered another agreement with General Electric of Canada to build a 137  MW Nuclear power plant at Karachi. In 1967, Abdus Salam urged Field Marshal Ayub Khan to acquire a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility from the United States, but Ayub Khan and his Finance minister, Muhammad Shoaib, had denied Salam's request.

After the 1965 India-Pakistan War, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Foreign minister at that time, began to lobby for a nuclear weapons option. 'If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. We have no other choice'. 'In October 1965, Bhutto visited Vienna to attend the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting. While there, he met with Munir Ahmad Khan, and other Pakistani scientists working at IAEA. Pakistani IAEA scientists briefed Bhutto on the rapid development of Indian nuclear programme. According to Munir Ahmad Khan, the nuclear facility at Trombay consisted of a plutonium production reactor, a reprocessing plant, and other facilities associated to weapon production. Bhutto quickly arranged a meeting with Ayub Khan. After this meeting, Ayub Khan remained unconvinced, and rejected the proposal made by Munir Ahmad Khan. Khan notified Bhutto immediately and told him about what had happened.

After learning what happened, Bhutto famously replied, "Don't worry. Our turn will come". In 1967, a team of Pakistani scientists, under Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry, produced the first batch of radioisotopes at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology. The research in nuclear technology at PINSTECH began to pick up speed, and Abdus Salam began to supervise Pakistani research institutes.

In 1968, research on theoretical physics had begun at the newly created Institute of Physics (IP). The IP was established in the small department of physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University (as of today, the IP and the department of physics has been expanded). Pakistani theoretical physicists, such as Faheem Hussain, Peter Rotolli, John Mumtaz, Fayyazuddin, Ishfaq Ahmad, and Masud Ahmad, had begun research on theoretical and quantum physics. Faheem Hussain became the first physicist at IP to published research analysis on string theory. Later on, the Relativity Group under Fayyazuddin carried out work on the Bethe-Bloch theory. In 1969, Raziuddin Siddiqui established Einstein's Physics Group (EPG) and carried out experiments on general relativity and quantum mechanics.

The Indo-Pakistani 1971 War

In March 1970, the general elections were held in Pakistan under the Military government of General Yahya Khan. The electoral results triggered the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan. Meanwhile, the political situation in West Pakistan was further deteriorating, and tension momentarily grew between the East and West Pakistan. A military action in East Pakistan called Operation Searchlight opened a series of bloody counter-insurgency operations led by the defected Bengali dissidents of Pakistan Armed Forces. Later, India intervened in the conflict as covert operations were successfully led by the Indian intelligence agencies.

This was followed by Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, a war in the western front. Pakistan, now fighting on both fronts, lost the war after only 13 days. The war with India and East-Pakistan had caused the collapse of the military dictatorship of Yahya Khan, and dissolution of United Pakistan.

During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Pakistan had lost a significant amount of territory as well as geopolitical and economic influence in South-Asia. The size of the Military of Pakistan and the civil population dramatically decreased. Pakistan lost half its Navy, a quarter of its Air Force and a third of its Army as well as losing millions of citizens to newly created Bangladesh.

Under pressure by the public and media, Military Government's Combatant Headquarters, the GHQ, gave in to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came into political power, governmental nuclear organizations came under control of Bhutto. In early January 1972, the year after the war, the ISI learned that India was close to developing an atomic bomb. Bhutto called Munir Ahmad Khan from Vienna and immediately removed Ishrat Hussain Usmani as the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Abdus Salam, Science Advisor, managed a meeting of senior scientists and officials of PAEC.

Organization

In December 1972, Nobel laureate Abdus Salam began to initiate the work on nuclear weapons. Abdus Salam called two of his students, Riazuddin and Masud Ahmad working at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) to report to Munir Ahmad Khan."Shahid-ur-Rahman Khan,'' Long Road to Chaghi''(Islamabad: Print Wise Publications, 1999), pp. 38–39. Theoretical physicists at Institute of Physics (IP) of Quaid-e-Azam University began to report back to Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Theoretical physicists at IP formed the " Theoretical Physics Group (TPG)", which was mandated to develop the design of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Abdus Salam played an integral role in TPG, and had done the groundbreaking work for the "Theoretical Physics Group", which was initially headed by Salam until 1974. The TPG took the research in Fast neutron calculations—the key to calculations of critical mass and weapon detonation. The TPG began to report directly to Abdus Salam and research was undertaken under his supervision. The TPG examined the problems of neutron diffraction, the theory of Simultaneity, hydrodynamics, and what kind of and how much fissile material and reflectors would be used. In 1973, Bhutto appointed Raziuddin Siddiqui as Technical member of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, and made him responsible for the preparation of its charter. Raziuddin Siddiqui, a theoretical physicist, established the Mathematical Physics Group (MPG) that took charge to carry out research in calculations on MC Integrals, cross section theory, critical mass theory, and mathematics involved in general theory of fission reactions.

Educated at the Argonne National Laboratory, Munir Ahmad Khan and Abdus Salam called a meeting to initiate a work on an atomic weapon in March 1974 at the Pinstech Institute. The meeting was convened by Abdus Salam and Riazuddin of the Theoretical Physics Group (TPG), Asghar Qadir and Munir Ahmad Rashid of Mathematical Physics Group (MPG), Ishfaq Ahmad and Samar Mubarakmand of Nuclear Physics Group (NPG), and Hafeez Qureshi and Zaman Sheikh of Wah Group Scientists (WGS). During the meeting, the word "bomb" was never used, instead the academic scientists preferred to use scientific research rationale. There, the scientists decided to develop an ' implosion' over the ' gun type fission device' citing economy in the use of fissile material. The Plutonium and Uranium exploration committees, under Ishfaq Ahmad and Ahsan Mubarak, made discoveries of natural raw plutonium ores and Natural uranium deposits in the different areas of country. The Nuclear Physics Group, formed in 1967, began to work to under Ishfaq Ahmad. The NPG analysis the problems on the converting ²³⁸ U into ²³⁹ Pu. In the 1980s the NPG successfully produced the 10 kg of uranium. The NPG also manufactured and reprocessed the Plutonium isotopes at the New Labs, PARR-Reactor.

In March 1974, a meeting led by Abdus Salam and Munir Ahmad Khan constituted a small directorate, code name Wah Group Scientists (WGS). Its members contained Hafeez Qureshi, director-general of Radiation Isotope Application Division (RIAD), and Zaman Sheikh, a chemical engineer from DESTO. The Wah Group Scientists began research on high precision mechanical and chemical components, physics calculation, high explosives and triggering mechanism. The same month of March, Abdus Salam and Munir Ahmad Khan set up a plant to manufacture fissile explosive lenses. In April 1974, Abdus Salam formed another group, Laser Physics Group (LPG), headed by Shaukat Hameed Khan. The Laser Physics Group was charged to carry out research and discover a process to separate NU into EU and DU. The LPG used advanced laser technologies, and examined the problems in molecular isotopic of separation of ²³⁵ U—whether to use infrared or Ultra violet lasers—and Electromagnetic radiation and atomic spectroscopy— what would be its wavelength and how atoms separated and ionized.

In early 1974, under the advice of Abdus Salam, PAEC formed another group, " Fast Neutron Physics Group", under Samar Mubarakmand. The Fast Neutron Physics Group (FNPG) took research in and examined the problems in the science of neutron, a subatomic particle. The Fast Neutron Physics Group calculated the numerical ranges of neutrons—how much power would be produced by the neutrons—and the efficiency of neutrons—determined the number of neutrons would be produced—in a device. The Fast Neutron Physics Group discovered the treatment process for the Fast, thermal and slow neutrons, and examined the behaviour of Neutron fluxes, and Neutron sources in particle accelerator installed at PINSTECH. The Fast Neutron Physics Group used the R-process to determine the neutrons' behaviour in the fissionable device.

End of 1974, Pakistan's Parliament passed a bill with a majority, declaring Ahmadis to be non-Muslims after which Abdus Salam, a senior scientist and Ahmadi, left Pakistan for Great Britain in protest. After the departure of Salam Munir Ahmad Khan continued the organizations. The Nuclear Engineering Division, under Bashiruddin Mahmood set up a ²³⁸ U production facility and the construction began under Munir Ahmad Khan's direction.

Abdul Qadeer Khan

On 22 May 1974, three years after the events in 1971, India carried out its first nuclear test, code named Smiling Buddha, near Pakistan's Eastern Border of Sindh. The nuclear test came as a surprise and caused a great alarm at the Government of Pakistan. On 19 May 1974, in a news conference, Bhutto stressed that India's nuclear program was designed 'to intimidate Pakistan and establish India's hegemony in the subcontinent'.

Abdul Qadeer Khan, a German-trained metallurgical engineer and nuclear weapon technologist, had spent years at URENCO in Belgium and the Netherlands. While at URENCO, Khan was considered a senior translator at the facility and as such had gained access to the most confidential sites and information.

After the India's nuclear test, Khan wrote a letter to Bhutto in which he explained that he had gained expertise in centrifuge-based uranium enrichment technologies at URENCO in Belgium. Bhutto directed the letter to Munir Ahmad Khan to arrange a meeting with A.Q. Khan. In October 1974, Munir A. Khan sent Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood to The Netherlands to interview Qadeer Khan. In December 1974, Khan returned to Pakistan to meet Prime Minister Ali Bhutto and PAEC Chairman Munir Ahmad Khan, where he tried to convince Bhutto to adopt his uranium route rather than the plutonium approach. Bhutto did not agree to halt the Plutonium route but decided on the spot to place Khan in charge of the uranium program, which would become a parallel nuclear program.

Khan initially worked under Bashiruddin Mahmood. But on 19 April 1976, Khan wrote to Munir Ahmad Khan expressing that he was not satisfied and that he wanted to work independently. The letter was forwarded to Prime minister's secretariat. A.Q. Khan, with support from Prime Minister Bhutto, formed the Engineering Research Laboratories, which later became known as the Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL). Just as PAEC, the KRL was under direct control of Prime Minister Bhutto and A.Q. Khan reported directly to the Prime Minister. A.Q. Khan disliked the idea of PAEC getting involved in ERL project, but favoured the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers to lead the program. The work on ERL was initiated by Bhutto, and the project was assigned to Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers.

As per recommendation of A.Q. Khan, the Engineer-in-Chief of Corps of Engineers selected Brigadier Zahid Ali Akbar Khan, who was renowned for the construction of the GHQ in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of Pakistan Army's Combatant Command, as the head of the project. Brigadier Zahid Ali Akbar led the accelerated construction of the facility, and began to co-administrator the program, alongside Bhutto himself. Impressed by his work at Kahuta, Bhutto gave him additional and secretive assignments for both PAEC and KRL. An office was set up in Prime minister's Secretariat for Brigadier Akbar as he kept Bhutto informed about the construction of the ERL.

Throughout the years, A.Q. Khan had established an administrative proliferation network through Dubai to smuggle URENCO nuclear technology to the Kahuta Research Laboratories. He established Pakistan's gas-centrifuge program which was also loosely based on the URENCO's Zippe-type centrifuge.

Zahid Ali Akbar Khan

By September 1976 a one hundred acre site near Kahuta was personally selected, as Abdul Qadeer Khan claimed in his columns.http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_opinion.cfm?category=Science&country=Pakistan#A history of Kahuta Prime Bhutto asked Chief of Army Staff General Tikka Khan that Brigadier Akbar Khan be promoted to two-star major-general, as it was felt that the title "''general''" would sway with the academic scientists working on the confidential projects. As a two-star general, Zahid Ali Akbar Khan led the constructions of both the Metallurgical Laboratory in Wah Canntonment (ML) and the uranium enrichment plant in Kahuta. Originally known as Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL), the facility was renamed Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in May 1981 by the Military President and Chief of Army Staff General Zia-ul-Haq in the honor of Abdul Qadeer Khan.

There are inconsistencies in the above account, which suggests that Brigadier Zahid Ali Akbar Khan was promoted to the rank of two star general by Gen Tikka on the orders of Bhutto to sway the scientists. This account contradicts Dr A.Q. Khan's account which suggests that Zahid Ali Akbar was neither promoted nor deputed by Gen Tikka. According to A.Q., Zahid was deputed to KRL as a Brigadier in the days of Gen Zia (after Gen Tikka retired from the Army) and the promotion to two star general came sometime after that event.

Administrative committees

Considering the secrecy of the projects and to maintain leadership over the programmes, Bhutto decided to form a committee that would be responsible for coordination and order in the projects that the academic scientists were working on.Mubashir Hassan