Munir Ahmed

Munir Ahmad Khan was a Pakistani nuclear power engineer and civil servant. Born in British India (now Pakistan), he was educated at Government College, Lahore, and went to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951. After completing a masters degree in electrical engineering, he joined the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois where he trained as a reactor engineer. In 1958, he joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and served there until 1972 when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan's newly elected prime minister, appointed him chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). Bhutto had met Munir several times before. Munir's brother, Khurshid, was a law minister in the government of Field Marshal Ayub Khan when Bhutto was Minister for Natural Resources. He occasionally sought Munir's advice on nuclear matters during visits to Vienna. However, Bhutto summoned Pakistan's leading scientists to Multan in 1972 and discussed whether Pakistan could build a nuclear bomb. Both Abdus Salam and I.H. Usmani tried to dissuade Bhutto from devoting resources to the project, but Munir was appointed as Usmani's replacement. Pakistan's efforts to go nuclear accelerated after India's first nuclear tests in May 1974. Initially, Pakistan followed the plutonium route to building a nuclear device. However, all of Pakistan's overseas collaborators were pulling out due to rumors of its nuclear ambitions. Pakistan then had little choice but to pursue highly enriched uranium as a route to its nuclear device and acquired the services of A.Q. Khan in 1976. Munir continued to serve as head of the PAEC and concentrated on strengthening the education and training of nuclear scientists and engineers. After retiring in 1991, he maintained an active interest in science policy and went on to chair a technology foresight exercise.