Science and Technology in Pakistan - State Controlled Science

State Controlled Science

Unlike some Western countries, the majority of the research programmes are conducted not at the institutions (such as universities) but at the specially set up research facilities and institutes. These institutes are performed under the government's Ministry of Science that overlooks the development and promotion of science in the country, while others are performed under the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, other specialized academies and even the research arms of various government ministries. At first, the core of fundamental science was the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, originally set up in 1953 and moved from Karachi to Islamabad in 1964. The Pakistan Academy of Sciences has a large percentage of researchers in the natural sciences, particularly physics. From 1947 to 1971, the research was being conducted independently with no government influence. The High Tension Laboratories (HTL) at the GCU was established by R.M. Chaudhrie with funds given by the British government in 1950s. In 1967, Prof. Abdus Salam led the foundation of the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP) at the Quaid-e-Azam University, and the establishment of the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology and the Centre for Nuclear Studies; all were independently established by Pakistan's academic scientists with financial assistance provided by European countries. However, after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became President, he took over the control of scientific research in 1972 as part of his intensified socialist reforms and policies. With advice taken from Dr. Mubashir Hassan, Bhutto established the Ministry of Science with Ishrat Hussain Usmani, a bureaucrat with a doctorate in atomic physics.

During 1950s and 1960s, both West Pakistan and East Pakistan had their own academies of science, with the East Pakistan relying on West Pakistan to allot the funds. Medical research is coordinated and funded by the Health Ministry and agricultural research is led by Agriculture Ministry and likewise, the research on environmental sciences is headed by the Environment Ministry.

An aftermath of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan Winter War was that Bhutto funded around more than 200% funding of science, dedicated to military research and development. Bhutto, with the help of his Science Adviser Dr. Salam, gathered hundreds of scientists working abroad to develop what became an atom bomb. This crash programme was directed at first by Dr. Abdus Salam until 1974 and then directed and led by Munir Ahmad Khan from 1974 until 1991. For the first time an effort was made by the government when Pakistan's citizens made advancements in nuclear physics, theoretical physics and mathematics. In 1980s, General Zia-ul-Haq radicalized the science by enforcing pseudoscience - by his Muslim fundamentalists as administrators - in Pakistan's schools and universities. One of the premiers were Mazhar Mahmood Qurashi, a physicist educated in the United Kingdom, and Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, a nuclear engineer, also educated in the United Kingdom. They played a major role in radicalizing the science in Pakistan. General Zia-ul-Haq later promoted Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan to export the sensitive industrial (military) technologies to Libya, Iran, and North Korea. Because of government control, academic research in Pakistan remains highly classified and unknown to the international scientific community. There have been several failed attempts made by foreign powers to infiltrate the country's research facilities to learn how much research has progressed and how much clandestine knowledge has been gained by Pakistan's scientific community. One of the notable cases was in the 1970s, when the Libyan intelligence made an unsuccessful attempt to gain knowledge on critical aspects of nuclear physics, and crucial mathematical calculations in theoretical physics, but was thwarted by the ISI Directorate for Joint Intelligence Technical (JIT). From the 1980s and onward, both the Russian intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency made several attempts to access Pakistan's research but because of the ISI, they were unable to gain any information. From the period 1980 to 2004, research in science fell short until General Pervez Mushrraf established the Higher Education Commission (HEC) which heightened the contribution of science and technology in Pakistan. Major research was undertaken by Pakistan's institutes in the field of natural sciences. In 2003, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Pakistan and the United States Department of State signed a comprehensive Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement that established a framework to increase cooperation in science, technology, engineering and education for mutual benefit and peaceful purposes between the science and education communities in both countries. In 2005, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) joined with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan to support the joint Pakistan-U.S. Science and Technology Cooperation Program. Beginning in 2008, the United States Department of State (DOS) joined USAID as U.S. co-sponsor of the program. This program, which is being implemented by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences on the U.S. side, is intended to increase the strength and breadth of cooperation and linkages between Pakistan scientists and institutions with counterparts in the United States. However, with the unfavourable situations, research declined. In 2011, the government dissolved the HEC and the control of education was taken by governmental ministries.