On May 28, 1998, exactly 24 years ago our beloved Pakistan fired up the nuclear test and became the 1st Islamic and world’s 7th Country to have nuclear technology. Today Pakistan celebrates Youm-e-Takbeer, to commemorate the historic nuclear tests in 1998, that made Pakistan the seventh nuclear nation in the world and the first Muslim state equipped with a nuclear arsenal.
Today on Youm-e-Takbeer day special gatherings, rallies and conferences will be held across the country in order to mark the day with benefiting manner.
Pakistan became the seventh nation to publicly test nuclear weapons: 14–15 Pakistan’s second nuclear test, Chagai-II, followed on 30 May 1998.
Chagai-I was Pakistan’s first public test of nuclear weapons. Its timing was a direct response to India’s second nuclear test Pokhran-II, on 11 and 13 May 1998.
Pakistan’s Nuclear program History
On 6 March 1970, The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) comes into effect as the United States, USSR, and Great Britain deposited the instruments of ratification. Pakistan does not sign the NPT.
Information Bank Abstracts, New York Times, 6 March 1970; in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, 6 March 1970,1970 Pakistan builds a pilot-scale plant at Dera Ghazi Khan for the concentration of uranium ores. The plant has a capacity of 10,000 pounds a day.
Shahid-ur-Rehman, “Roses do not grow in D.G. Khan,” Long Road To Chagai, (Islamabad: 1999, Print Wise Publication), p. 69.20 December 1971
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto assumes power in Pakistan. As a first step in the direction of the institution of a nuclear weapons program, Bhutto tasks Munir Ahmad Khan, currently on a stint at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, to prepare a report on Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure.
Shahid-ur-Rehman, “Z.A. Bhutto, A Man in Hurry for the Bomb,” Long Road To Chagai, (Islamabad: 1999, Print Wise Publication), pp. 16-17. 20 January 1972
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto holds a meeting with senior Pakistani nuclear scientists to discuss the possibility of embarking on a nuclear weapons program. The meeting is held at the residence of the Punjab Chief Minister Nawab Sadiq Qureshi in Multan. Key invitees include scientists from the Pakistan Institute for Nuclear Science & Technology (PINSTECH), the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Government College, Lahore, and the Defense Science & Technology Organization (DESTO). Nobel laureate and former scientific advisor to the Pakistani government Dr. Abdus Salam also attends the meeting. During the meeting, several scientists enthusiastically support the idea of a nuclear weapons program. Bhutto endorses the idea and promises that his government will spare “no facilities and finances” for a weapons program. He also demands that the scientists produce a fission device within three years. Toward the end of the meeting, Bhutto announces that Munir Ahmad Khan will replace Dr. Usmani as Chairman of the PAEC.
After the execution of the Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Gen.Zia Ul Haq carried on this mission, it was in the favor of the country and the Pak Army to defend itself from the arch-rival India, by the mid-80s Pakistan was prepared to test but delayed until the day 2nd nuclear bomb tested by India in 1998, Which raised the threat level leaving with no option but to Test Nuclear, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif along with the Nuclear Scientist Abdul Qadir Khan, decided to test detonated seven nuclear blasts on May 28, 1998, exactly 15 years earlier at Chaghi, Balochistan and earned the honor of becoming first nuclear power of Muslim world and 7th nuclear power of the world.
Erstwhile US, UK, Russia, China, France, and India were the nuclear powers in the world.
Special functions, seminars, conferences, and public meetings will be held by PML-N to highlight the role played by Dr Abdul Qadir Khan and Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in the perspective of nuclear detonations, But the history remains marked that Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Gen. Zia Ul Haq played the major role to make it possible for Pakistan to celebrate Youm e Takbeer
National Broadcasting Service, a dedicated current affairs channel of Radio Pakistan, will broadcast special programs to memorize the exuberance of the day.
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