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Volume 4, No. 8 - June - July 2005

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 Pakistan's Nuclear Program - A Fact File
 
1955: Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) set up to promote peaceful uses of atomic energy.
1972: Pakistan set up first nuclear power station with Canadian assistance.
1974: Prime Minister Z. A. Bhutto vowed Pakistan will “eat grass” if necessary to develop nuclear weapons after India exploded its first nuclear device.
1976: Canada ended N-ties with Pakistan in a dispute over non-proliferation safeguards.
1976: Pakistan set up Kahuta Research Laboratories near Islamabad to establish a uranium enrichment plant to seek nuclear capability.
1979: The U. S. cut off military-economic aid to Pakistan after refusing to accept assurances that its nuclear program was purely peaceful.
1980: Pakistan said it joined ranks of a dozen countries able to fabricate its own nuclear fuel based on uranium available in the country.
1982: The U. S. lifted embargo on resumption of economic and military aid to Pakistan.
1983: Dutch court sentenced A. Q. Khan to four years’ jail after he was convicted in absentia of nuclear espionage. Decision was later overturned on a technicality. Khan denied allegations that he stole plans for uranium enrichment centrifuges from Urenco, a British-Dutch-German consortium he worked for in Holland in the 19070s.
1986: Pakistan and Iran signed nuclear cooperation agreement after visit by A. Q. Khan.
1989: PAEC chairman Munir Ahmed Khan said a nuclear deal with China in November for a 300-megawatt nuclear plant had broken an international embargo against Pakistan.
1990: August: Two months after Iraq invaded Kuwait, an intermediary claiming to represent A. Q. Khan met Iraqi intelligence and proposed help in establishing a project to enrich uranium and build a nuclear weapon. Pakistan later denied this.

October: The U. S. stopped military-economic aid to Pakistan over suspicions that its nuclear program was weapons-oriented.
1991: Pakistan Army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg told U. S. ambassador he was discussing nuclear and conventional military cooperation with Iranian army.
1992: U.S. officials said A. Q. Khan initiated talks with North Korea to obtain
intermediate-range ballistic missiles for Pakistan in return for gas
centrifuge designs and other assistance to enrich uranium for nuclear
weapons.
1998: Pakistan test-fired 937-mile range Ghauri missile, which it said can carry nuclear warheads and was meant to deter India.
1998: India conducted five nuclear tests. Pakistan expressed alarm and then stunned the world by conducting six nuclear bomb tests. Both countries were sanctioned.
2001: Dictator Pervez Musharraf removed A. Q. Khan as head of Pakistan’s nuclear programs and named him as scientific adviser.
2003: Pakistan said it was questioning nuclear scientists over allegations of proliferation – acting on information from Iran and Muhammad Gadaffi-ruled Libya to the U. N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency.
2004: January: Probe led to removal of A. Q. Khan as Scientific Adviser to Prime Minsiter.

February 4: Khan appeared on state television to make personal apology to the nation for endangering national security by taking nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

February 5: Pakistani Dictator Pervez Musharraf pardoned nuclear proliferator A. Q. Khan.

October 12: Pakistan tested another medium-range nuclear capable missile. The The Hatf-V Ghauri missile has a range of 1500 Km and can carry nuclear warheads.

November 29: Pakistan successfully tested the short-range Ghaznavi ballistic missile that is capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads. This was the third test of the surface-to-surface missile, also known as Hatf-III, which has a range of 290 km. The test was part of a series to be conducted to verify certain parameters and to refine different subsystems of the missile. The data collected during the test indicated that the design and parameters had been successfully validated.

December 8: Pakistan carried out a “successful” test firing of its indigenously developed, medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile, Hatf-IV/Shaheen I. A press statement by the Inter- Services Public Relations department said: “The missile is capable of reaching targets up to 700 km. This is the second test in less than 10 days by Pakistan.
2005:

February 2: The United States says Pakistan has yet to fully unravel an illegal nuclear proliferation network that was headed by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

February 7: TIME magazine reports that Paksitani Scientist and the father of its nuclear program A. Q. Khan, might have sold nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, or to al-Qaida and other non-state groups. The Time article quotes numerous unnamed sources from the United States and Libya, as well as a source described as an acquaintance of A.Q. Khan. The report also refers to Pakistan's refusal to allow U.S. investigators to question Mr. Khan personally.

February 27: Washington Post reports that international investigators have produced evidence about an alleged secret meeting between Iranian officials and associates of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, founder of Pakistan`s nuclear program. The report claims that in the meeting held in Dubai in 1987, a written offer was made to help Iran`s nuclear program.

February 28: IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei says Iran has admitted it received an offer from the A. Q. Khan network, including full knowledge of nuclear enrichment technology.

March 10: Pakistan acknowledges that the founder of its nuclear program A. Q. Khan illegally gave centrifuges to Iran that can be used to process uranium for nuclear weapons.

March 19: Pakistan successfully test-fired an indigenously developed long-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile Shaheen II. The missile could travel up to 2,000 km (1,200 miles) and carry all kinds of warheads.

March 31: Pakistan successfully test fired a short-range, nuclear-capable missile Hatf II. The launch of the homegrown Hatf II, or Abdali missile, which can hit targets as far as 180 kilometers (111 miles) away, came less than two weeks after Pakistan tested its longest-range missile.

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