Syed Ali Nawab


Syed Ali Nawab , was an engineering officer in the Pakistan Army Corps of EME, and an electrical and mechanical engineer who was known for his classified works in the development of atomic bomb at the Engineering Research Laboratories in the 1970s. In recognition of these contributions, he was awarded in its original format, the highly prestigious Hilal e Imtiaz medal in 1979 - this was a solid gold medal that in its original form also conferred upon its recipient, allotments of residential as well as valuable irrigated agricultural lands reserved for recipients of gallantry awards and heroes of Pakistan. Nawab was the first two star General to be awarded the Hilal e Imtiaz Military. Nawab was also among a handful of Generals of the Pakistan Army and the only two star General to have ever been awarded this format of the medal.
In 1974 he was unexpectedly promoted to the rank of Major General and became the ranking EME officer at the time. He also made history, by becoming the first Pakistan Army officer with a formal college degree in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering to become a General officer in the Pakistan Armed Forces and also in EME.
He is associated with research work in the Engineering Research Laboratories, mainly working on the operations of the computer numerical control machines throughout his career. Earlier in his career, he was posted twice as the military liaison officer at the High Commission of Pakistan in London in the United Kingdom, for the British Army. He is known for appointing staff in London and Germany to help ERL import equipment, using his contacts developed as a military liaison officer in London.
Among his colleagues at the Khan Research Laboratories, he had reputation of being a qualified machinist and a competent engineer who sought quick solutions, and later worked as consultant engineer on electric power production and quality assurance at the Ministry of Defence Production of Government of Pakistan for many years.

Biography

Early life and career in military

Syed Ali Nawab was born in Budaun, Uttar Pradesh in British India, into an Urdu-speaking family on 6 October 1925. He was married to Razia Jaffery, an Army Captain and graduate of King Edward Medical College who belonged to a family from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Nawab attended Aligarh Muslim University after his matriculation in 1941–43. He initially studied physics and graduated with BSc in physics in 1946, before attending the engineering college. In 1948, he graduated with B.S. in electrical engineering, emigrated and joined the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul. He graduated at the top of his class.
In 1949, Nawab was commissioned in the Pakistan Army's Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and was one of the few army officers directed by the Pakistani military to attend the Loughborough University where he gained a diploma in mechanical engineering in 1951. From 1951-1952 he trained in UK at workshops in Aldershot, Woolich, Ashford, Sterling, Borden and Arborfield. He then passed the exam for "MIMechE:" at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in the United Kingdom.
Upon returning to Pakistan in 1954, Major Nawab was appointed as inspector of vehicle and engineering equipment in the Pakistan Army, having responsible for quality inspection and equipment for the military vehicles. In 1955–56, Major Nawab was later posted in the Army GHQ as a controller of inspection and technical development.
In 1954–56 Major Nawab was first directed to attend the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham in England to study machine design components on the military vehicles, and then in 1960 sent to attend the Aberdeen Proving Ground, the United States Army facility, located in Maryland, in the United States. At the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, Major Nawab attended the Ordnance Officer Career Course at the US Army Ordnance School, and qualified as an specialist.
In 1960–64, Lieutenant-Colonel Nawab was appointed assistant director of the EME director at the Army GHQ. In 1961 he completed training US Army’s Management Engineering Training Agency at Rock Island Illinois.
In 1965, Lt-Col. Nawab participated in the second war with India, responsible for managing military ordnance and inspections of the military vehicles.
In 1965, Colonel Nawab was directed by the Minister of Defence to join the staff of the High Commission of Pakistan in London as a military liaison officer for the British Army. Col. Nawab served in this assignment until 1971 when he returned to his country to participate in the third war with India.

Postwar career

In 1974, Nawab was promoted by Prime Minister Bhutto to the rank of two star or Major General as DG Military Vehicles Research and Development Establishment.
Since, Prime Minister Bhutto had placed the nuclear weapons project directly under Secretary of Defence Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan's control, Nawab's first appointment as a Major General was in the Ministry of Defense, where he could work directly with the Secretary of Defense without arousing suspicion. Nawab was then transferred as Director General Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering on May 6, 1976 until 6 December 1976. by Defence Secretary Ghulam Ishaq Khan to supervise the establishment of Engineering Research Laboratories ; and for procuring metallurgical equipments, elemental ores, and metalworking that was crucial for scientific and research work at the ERL. General Zia who was recently promoted to COAS on March 1, 1976 had to be instructed by the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan to transfer Nawab back to the Army as DG EME so Nawab could perform these functions and use his British connections to the British Ministry of Defence to import and procure industrial equipments, and the computerized numerical control machines from the United Kingdom that were installed in the ERL.
At ERL, Nawab established the machine shop at ERL, and was noted among the civilian scientists as competent mechanical engineer and able machinist, while working on the machine design components that were crucial for the feasibility of the gas centrifuges, where Nawab designed and built the machine components using the lathe, drill press, bandsaw, and the CNC machines. Major-General Nawab officiated his role towards establishing the engineering branch at the KRL as a senior engineer and researcher while partially completing the engineering staffing composed of EME army officers.
Major-General Nawab also used his influence as DG EME in carefully selecting and deputing EME officers as to be posted as military liaison officers and staff at the Office of Military Procurement that was used by the ERL at the High Commission of Pakistan in the United Kingdom. All this was done clandestinely, without Dr A.Q. Khan knowing that Nawab was actually DG EME to maintain deniability. Brigadier Islamullah Khan of EME assisted in maintaining the clandestine aspect of this operation and in building ERL. He as well as other EME officers who assisted were recommended and later promoted to the rank of Major General.
In 1977 Major-General Nawab was appointed as Chairman of Pakistan Ordnance Factories but remain associated with his work at the ERL. COAS General Zia was instructed by Secretary Defence, Ghulam Ishaq Khan to recommend this transfer. Nawab used his appointment at POFs to make additional personnel allocations to ERL and to procure ores of uranium in the country, and relocating them at a secure location for the expansion of nuclear infrastructure.
In 1978, during General Zia's military regime, Major-General Nawab was superseded, as junior officers were promoted to higher ranks. This was unsurprising since Prime Minister Bhutto and General Tikka Khan who had promoted Nawab were both jailed by General Zia; and Nawab's boss Defense Secretary Ghulam Ishaq Khan was transferred out to the Ministry of Finance. Subsequently, Ghulam Ishaq Khan brought Zia up to speed on details of the ERL project and convinced Zia to give Nawab an extension as well as award him the original Hilal e Imtiaz Military in 1979 with all its accompanying, valuable land allocations reserved for heroes of Pakistan. Immediately after this medal was awarded to Nawab, the format of the medal was changed by General Zia. It then became a ceremonial award, given without all the expensive irrigated agricultural land allocations, reserved for heroes of Pakistan, by General Zia. This prevented arousing suspicion and attracting unwarranted attention to these generous land allocations made by the state of Pakistan to Nawab.
In 1981, Major-General Nawab again provided a crucial technical support when he assisted the KRL scientists in redesigning, and eventually machining of the gyrational beds and bearing components of the gas centrifuges with the goal of developing powerful and effective methods of gaseous method that were employed in the Uranium enrichment.

Later life

In 1981, Major-General Nawb was again posted by the Ministry of Defence as the military liaison officer at the High Commission of Pakistan in the United Kingdom, working closely with maintaining Pakistan Army's military relations with British Army. His assignment did not last long, and eventually decided to seek retirement from his military service with the Army in 1983.
After his retirement, Nawab founded the small engineering consulting firm, the Experts Advisory Cell, where he worked for the Government of Pakistan as a consultant engineer to advise and monitor state owned enterprises. Later, he became involved in consulting on the electricity manufacturing and electric power production to the Ministry of Industries and Production. He also co-authored a paper while consulting on the industrial nuclear power generation to the Ministry of Finance as he opined: "Evaluating Public Manufacturing Enterprises: An experimental monitoring system". In addition, the contributions of Nawab's and his firm, the EAC, to industrialization of Pakistan were recognized by the World Bank and IMF in the 1983 World Development Report.
He later consulted the Ministry of Defence Production on product safety and quality assurance for many years, until living a quiet live in Karachi in 1990.
On 22 February 1994, Nawab passed away at his estate in Karachi, and was buried in Military Cemetery in DHA Society in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. For many years, Nawab's work and role at the KRL was not known to the public and details of his work was kept well hidden until the memoirs were published by dr. AQ Khan in 2009.
According to the various admission, Nawab often used the codename: Anis Nawab, to hide his identity while working on classified works at the ERL, when he reportedly met with journalist Peter Griffin to discuss the issue of industrialization in Pakistan.