Remembering the forgotten ahmadi heroes of Pakistan

Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad

WASHINGTON, July 23: A former finance minister and presidential adviser of Pakistan, Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Maryland. He was 97.

He was an old heart patient.

Better known as M.M. Ahmad, he served under two presidents, Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan.

In the early 1970s, he was stabbed inside an elevator in the Finance Ministry, Islamabad, by one of his peons. After which he moved to the United States where he rejoined the World Bank as a consultant.

M. M. Ahmad was the grandson of the founder of the Ahmadiya community. He has no children and had adopted one of his nephews, Zahid Ahmad.

Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan

Services to Pakistan
The British Prime Minister made a formal announcement in the House of Commons on February 20, 1947, that the whole responsibility for the government and administration of India would be transferred to Indian hands and that if no settlement is arrived at between the political parties in India, the responsibility would be transferred to a Central Government and to provinces and other authorities in such a manner as may appear to His Majesty's Government to be in the best interest of India. This was the time when the coalition Ministry in the Punjab, headed by Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana, was at loggerheads with Punjab Muslim League. At this critical juncture, Zafarullah Khan in his letter dated February 22, 1947 advised Khizar Hayat Khan to tender his resignation in the larger interest of the Indian Muslims. Acting on this advice, Khizar Hayat Khan resigned on March 2, 1947. Zafarullah Khan's letter, interalia, says: "It has now become imperative that the Muslims should close their ranks and should carry on a united struggle to secure their future in India. All other considerations sink into insignificance in comparison with this. You will appreciate that it is not possible to set out in the space of a letter all the factors to which the situation has given rise. I can only assure you that before writing to you I have considered the problem in as many of its aspects as my mind has been able to grasp.
The deliberate conclusion at which I have arrived is that notwithstanding every possible consideration to the contrary, personal, party or ideologic, you ought to seize this opportunity to come to a settlement with the League so that henceforth all efforts in the Punjab should have a unified direction and Muslims should devote themselves to safeguarding their future not only in the Punjab but throughout India. You should make immediate contact with the leaders of the Muslim League in the Punjab, whether they are in jail or outside of it, and tell them that the situation created by the British Prime Minister's statement renders it imperative that you should come to an understanding with each other. You should also make it quite clear to them that on your side you do not insist upon remaining in power nor lay down any condition with regard to how the Ministry should be reconstituted. If on their side they insist that your Muslim supporters in the Assembly should join them unconditionally I would earnestly request you to accept the condition."

Even the draft of the statement issued by Khizar Hayat Khan on his resignation was prepared by Muhammad Zafarullah Khan.

Commenting on Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan's vigorous advocacy of the Muslim League case before Radcliff Commision, the Urdu daily Nawa- i-Waqt, Lahore, dated August 1, 1947, writes: "For four days on end Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan argued the Muslim case in most forceful, most brilliant and most reasonable manner. Success is in the hands of Providence, but the excellence and the ability with which Zafarullah Khan advocated the Muslims case has given satisfaction to the Muslims inasmuch as they feel that their just and righteous cause has been represented before the powers that be in the best possible manner. We are confident that all Muslims of the Punjab, whatever their religious beliefs, would acknowledge and be grateful for this service."

Iftikhar Husain Khan, Nawab of Mamdot, the President of Punjab Muslim League, in his letter dated August 8, 1947, to Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, who argued Pakistan's case before Radcliff Commission, under instructions from Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, writes: "Now that the Boundary Commission has concluded its hearings, I wish to express deep sense of gratitude which I and all other Mussalmans of the Punjab feel towards you. Your unremitting toil in the collection of material, your brilliant presentation of our case and your profound interpretation of law and history have won universal admiration. In this most critical hour of our history, you have rendered an inestimable service to the Millat and created a lasting place in the hearts of all Mussalmans. We can never forget how willingly you agreed to interrupt your important discussions in London, return and fulfil this patriotic mission. The knowledge that your zeal was inspired solely by your love for Islam fills our hearts with pride and gratitude."

Mr. Justice Muhammad Munir, a judge of the Lahore High Court (who later rose to the office of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan) who presided over the Court of Inquiry set up by the Government of Punjab, to enquire into the Punjab disturbances on 1953, in his report - commonly known as `Munir Report' - describes as `vile and unfounded' the charges levelled against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community that the district of Gurdaspur was assigned to India by the Award of the Boundary Commission because of the gratitude adopted by the Ahmadi Muslims and the arguments addressed by Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan who had been selected by Quaid-e- Azam to represent the case of Muslim League before the Commission. He says: "The President of this Court who was a member of that Commission considers it his duty to record his gratitude to Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan for the valian fight he put up for Gurdaspur. This is apparent from the record of the Boundary Commission which anyone who is interested may see. For the selfless services rendered by him to the Muslim Community, it is shameless ingratitude for anyone to refer to Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan in a manner which has been referred by certain parties before the Court of Inquiry." (Munir Report page 197)

Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, who in June 1947 was appointed as a member of the Steering Committee of the Partition Council for India and Pakistan, was Secretary General, Government of Pakistan, after the establishment of the new State, became Finance Minister in 1951 and Prime Minister in 1955, while referring to the debate on Kashmir in the Security Council and Pakistan's reply on January 15, 1948 to India's complaint, in his monumental book "The Emergence of Pakistan" states that: "Zafarullah Khan's masterly exposition of the case convinced the Security Council that the problem was not simply one of expelling so called raiders from Kashmir, as the Indian representative would have them believe, but of placing Indo-Pakistan relations on a just and peaceful basis and solving the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the will of the people of the State." 
The Canada Stary Weekly, Toronto, in its issue of May 28, 1949, says: "The man who more than any other single person has put Pakistan on the international map as a force to be reckoned with is Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan."

When some disgruntled persons made a row against Muhammad Zafarullah Khan in 1952, the daily Dawn, Karachi, dated May 22, 1952, condemned these elements and observed: "The Pakistani nation cannot be so ungrateful to Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan (who is serving her with great sincerity and devotion) as to be misled by the uproar of a handful of reactionaries - uproar of a small number of people who are prisoners of their own obscurantism."

Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, a former Prime Minster of Pakistan, already mentioned above, in his letter to Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, dated October 3, 1955, expresses his "deep sense of gratitude and admiration for the disinterested and untiring way, you are continuing to serve Pakistan and the cause of Islam." He adds "It was very good of you to have visited Syria and Lebanon and done so much for Pakistan and I might add Islam."

Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, a former Foreign Minister of Pakistan and President of the Pakistan Legal Aid Association, says: "From Sialkot to the Security Council, from Round Table Conferences to international conferences, from the Join Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, from the Viceroy's Executive Council to the Pakistan Cabinet, from the Indian Assembly to the General Assembly of the United Nations and from the Federal Court of the sub-continent to the International Court of Justice, Chaudhry Zafarullah's contribution is clean and consistent, creditable and commendable."(Dawn, Karachi, March 3, 1964)

Former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sent a message of appreciation to Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan on his retirement from the Presidentship of the International Court of Justice at The Hague. His message read: "I wish to convey to you our deep appreciation for the services you have so selflessly rendered over several decades to the people of Pakistan as well as to the international community. As a leading member of the political movement, which led to the achievement of a homeland of the Muslims in the sub-continent and earlier as President of the All India Muslim League in 1931, you played a very significant role in the creation of Pakistan. As Foreign Minister of Pakistan for the first seven years after the birth of the country, you helped in establishing Pakistan as a state which commanded respect abroad and whose voice carried weight in international forms. Your services to Pakistan, however, did not end there. As President of the UN General Assembly and as a judge of the International Court of Justice you not only served the international community as a whole, but in doing so enhanced the prestige of Pakistan. I can say with full confidence that all of us shared the pride that one naturally felt at the respect you commanded in the international community and the United Nations in your various capacities."

Services to the Muslim World
Muhammad Zafarullah Khan's logical and forceful advocacy of the cause of the Arabs in particular, and his support to the aspirations of the subject nations of Africa and the Third World, in general, on the forum of the United Nations and outside it, won him universal appreciation and respect.

The Statesman, Delhi, dated October 8, 1947, editorially observes: "For the first time the voice of Pakistan was heard in the counsels of the United Nations on a burning topic of world-wide significance when leader of this country's delegation, Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan, addressed the United Nations Palestine Committee at Lake Success on Tuesday. It was a telling speech which tore into shreds the specious pleas put forward by the advocates of the partition of Palestine. Chaudhry Zafarullah did not merely indulge in rhetoric when he described the partition plan as `physically and geographically a monstrosity', he proceeded to prove this by unassailable arguments. Answering the contention that the migration of more Jews into Palestine should be permitted because the Jewish displaced persons desired to go to that country, Pakistan's spokesman asked whether the Americans would consent to relax or abrogate their own immigration laws if displaced persons of various other nationalities desired to enter the United States and settle there? Would America, he further asked, agree to take in the five million displaced persons of the Punjab if they desired to leave the scene of their suffering and cross over to the United States. We have little doubt that the Arabs will rejoice to find the voice of Pakistan so powerfully raised in the United Nations in defence of their cause. The addition of the independent sovereign state of Pakistan to the comity of free Muslim peoples of the World is already beginning to have its effect on international affairs," the paper concluded.

The same paper in its issue, dated October 11, 1947, quotes "an Arab Spokesman" on Muhammad Zafarullah Khan's speech before the Palestine Committee of United Nations General Assembly, on October 7, 1947, as saying: "It was a most brilliant and exhaustive survey of the Arab case regarding Palestine that I have ever heard."

In one of his letters in Urdu dated March 6, 1948, addressed to a Pakistani, Khawaja Hassan Nizami, the well-known Muslim divine of Delhi, in reference to the brilliant advocacy of the Palestine cause by Muhammad Zafarullah Khan at the United Nations, writes: 
"The fact of the matter is that Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan has done a job for which 80 crore Muslims of the World owe him a debt of gratitude. I never hesitate to mention this fact to all, the intelligentsia and the common people alike. Even in my speeches at big public gatherings. I freely express this view."

His Majesty King Faisal-al-Saud, who in his capacity as Foreign Minister of Saudia Arab headed the Saudi Arabian delegation to the United Nations, in a letter, dated May 5, 1948, to Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, thanked him `for your close co-operation and the noble stand which your Excellency has taken, not only during the meeting but since the question of Palestine has been put before the United Nations. Allow me to state that your high principles have created a desire on the part of all righteous persons to identify themselves with the efforts of your Excellency, not only on behalf of the Arabs, but Moslems all over the world as well', the letter adds.

Dr Abdus Salam

heoretical Physicist
Born: 29 January 1926
Profession: Physicist
Affiliation(s): Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH), Punjab University …

Mohammad Abdus Salam (January 29, 1926– November 21, 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the electromagnetic and weak forces. Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg shared the 1979 Nobel prize for this discovery. Salam holds the distinction of being the first Pakistani and the first Muslim Nobel Laureate to receive the prize in the sciences.

Salam was a science advisor to the Government of Pakistan from 1960 till 1974, a position from which he played a major and influential role in Pakistan’s science infrastructure. Salam was responsible for not only major development and contribution in theoretical and particle physics, but as well as promoting scientific research at maximum level in his country. Salam was the founding director of Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), and responsible for the establishment of the Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) in Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). As Science Advisor, Salam played an integral role in Pakistan’s development on peaceful use of nuclear energy, and directed the research on development of weapons in 1972. In 1974, Salam left Pakistan in protest when Pakistan Parliament controversially passed a parliamentary bill declaring Ahmadiyya Muslim Community as Non-Muslims. Even after his death, Salam remained one of the most influential scientists in his country. In 1998, following the country’s nuclear tests, the Government of Pakistan issued a commemorative stamp, as a part of “Scientists of Pakistan”, to honour the services of Salam.

Salam’s major and notable achievements include the Pati-Salam model, Magnetic photon, Vector meson, Grand Unified Theory, work on supersymmetry and, most importantly, electroweak theory, for which he was awarded the most prestigious award in Physics — the Nobel Prize. Salam made a major contribution in Quantum Field Theory and advancement of Mathematics at the Imperial College. With his student, Riazuddin, Salam made important contributions to the modern theory on neutrinos, neutron stars and black holes, as well as the work on modernizing the quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. As a teacher and science promoter, Salam is remembered as a founder and scientific father of mathematical and theoretical physics in Pakistan while his stay as Science advisor. Salam heavily contributed to the rise of Pakistani physics to the Physics community in the world. Even until his death, Salam continued to contribute in physics and tirelessly advocated for the development of science in third world countries.

Youth and education
Abdus Salam was born in the small town of Jhang, in 1926. Salam’s father was an education officer in the Department of Education of British Punjab State in a poor farming district. Salam’s family had a long tradition of piety and passion for learning.

At age fourteen, Salam scored the highest marks ever recorded for the Matriculation Examination at the Punjab University. He won a full scholarship to the Government College University of Lahore, British Punjab State. Salam was a versatile scholar, interested in Urdu and English literature in which he excelled. But, soon picked up Mathematics as his concentration. Salam’s mentor and tutors wanted him to become an English teacher, but Salam decided to stick with Mathematics As a fourth-year student there, he published his work on Srinivasa Ramanujan’s problems in mathematics, and took his B.A. in Mathematics in 1944. His father wanted him to join Indian Civil Service in His Majesty’s Government. In those days, the Indian Civil Service was a highest aspiration for young university graduates and civil servants occupied a respected place in the civil society. Respecting his father’s wish, Salam tried for the Indian Railways but did not qualify for the service as he failed the medical optical tests because Salam wore spectacles since an early age. The results further concluded that Salam failed a mechanical test necessary for the railway engineers to be passed in order to gain commission in Indian Railways, and the results also stated that Salam was too young for the Indian Railways to compete for the job. Therefore, Indian Railways rejected Abdus Salam’s job application. While in Lahore, Abdus Salam went on to attend the graduate school of Government College University. He received his M.A. in Mathematics from the Government College University in 1946. That same year, he was awarded a scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge University, where he completed a BA degree with Double First-Class Honours in Mathematics and Physics in 1949. In 1950, he received the Smith’s Prize from Cambridge University for the most outstanding pre-doctoral contribution to Physics. After finishing his degrees, Fred Hoyle advised Salam to spend another year in Cavendish Laboratory to do the research on experimental physics, but Salam had no patience for carrying out long experiments in laboratory. Salam returned to Jhang, Punjab (now part of Pakistan) and renewed his scholarship and returned to United Kingdom to do his doctorate.

He obtained a Ph.D degree in Theoretical Physics from Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. His doctoral thesis contained comprehensive and fundamental work in Quantum Electrodynamics. By the time it was published in 1951, it had already gained him an international reputation and the Adams Prize.

While he was doing his doctorate, his mentors challenged him to solve an intractable problem within one year, a problem that had defied such great minds as Dirac and Feynman. Within a six month period, Salam found a solution for the renormalization of meson theory. As he proposed the solution at the Cavendish Laboratory, Salam had attracted the attention of Bethe, Oppenheimer and Dirac.

Academic Career
After his doctorate in 1951, Salam returned to the Government College University as a Professor of Mathematics which he remained there till 1954. During the same period, he was the Chairman of the Department of Mathematics, and professor as well, at the Punjab University. As he became the chairman, Salam sought to update the university curriculum, making a course of Quantum mechanics as a part of undergraduate course. This was soon reverted back by the Vice-Chancellor, and Salam decided to teach an evening course in Quantum Mechanics outside the regular curriculum. While Salam had mixed popularity in the university, he began to supervise the education of students who were particularly influenced by him. As a result, Riazuddin remained the only student of Salam who has privileged to study under Salam at the Under-graduate and Post-graduate level in Lahore, and Post-doctoral level in Cambridge University. In 1953, Salam was unable to establish a research institute in Lahore, as he faced strong opposition from his peers. In 1954, Salam took fellowship and became one of the earliest fellows of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. As a result of 1953 riots in Lahore, Salam went back to Cambridge and joined St John’s College, and took a position as a professor of mathematics in 1954. In 1957, he was invited to take a chair at Imperial College of London, and he and Paul Matthews went on to set up the Theoretical Physics Department at Imperial College. While, he kept his strong association links with Pakistan, and visited his country time by time. As time passes, this department became one of the prestigious research department that included well known physicists such as Steven Weinberg, Tom Kibble, Gerald Guralnik, C. R. Hagen, Riazuddin, and John Ward. In 1957, Punjab University conferred Salam with an Honorary doctorate for his contribution in Particle physics.

The same year with help from his mentor, Salam launched a scholarship programme for his students in Pakistan. At Cambridge and Imperial College he had formed a group of theoretical physicists, the majority of them were his Pakistani students. In 1959, he became one of the youngest to be named Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 33. Salam took a fellowship at the Princeton University in 1959, where he met with J. Robert Oppenheimer. Salam presented his brief and research work on neutrinos to Oppenheimer. Both Oppenheimer and Salam discussed the foundation of electrodynamics, problems and their solution, in which Salam was praised by Oppenhimer. His dedicated personal assistant was Jean Bouckley. In 1980, Salam became was a foreign fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.

Govt. College, Jhang and Lahore, Pakistan (1938-1946)
M.A (Punab University) First place in every examination at the Punjab University
Foundation Scholar, St. John’s College, Cambridge (1946-1949)
B.A Honours Double first in Mathematics (Wrangler) and Physics.
Cavendish Laboratory
Ph. D in Theoretical Physics Cambridge (1952)
Awarded Smith’s Prize by the University of Cambridge for the most outstanding pre-doctral contribution to physics (1950)

Scientific career
Early in his career, Salam made an important and significant contribution on Quantum electrodynamics, quantum field theory, quantum chromodynamics, and including its extension into particle and nuclear physics. In his early career in Pakistan, Salam was highly interested in mathematical series in mathematics, and their possible relations with physics. Salam had played an influential role in the advancement of nuclear physics, but he maintained and dedicated himself to mathematics and theoretical physics. Though, he did regarded nuclear physics (nuclear fission and nuclear power) as “Passé” of physics as it had already “happened”. Even in Pakistan, Salam was the leading driving force in leading theoretical physics in Pakistan, with many scientists he continued to influence and encourage to keep their work on theoretical physics. Salam had a prolific research career in Theoretical and High-energy physics, and either he pioneered or was associated with all the important developments in this field. Salam had work on theory of the Neutrino —an elusive particle that was first postulated by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930s. Salam introduced Chiral symmetry in the theory of neutrinos. The introduction of Chiral symmetry played crucial role in subsequent development of the theory of electroweak interactions. Salam later passed his work to Riazuddin, who made pioneering contributions in neutrinos. In 1960, Salam carried the work on nuclear physics, where he had pioneered the work on Proton decay. Salam introduced the induction of the massive Higgs bosons in the theory of the Standard Model, where he predicted the hypothetical form of radioactive decay emitted by Protons, thus he theorized the existence of Proton decay. In 1963, Salam published his theoretical work on the Vector meson. The paper introduced the interaction of Vector meson, Photon (vector electrodynamics), and the Renormalization of vector meson’s known mass after the interaction. In 1962, Salam began to work with John Clive Ward on symmetries and Electroweak unification. In 1964, Salam and Ward worked on a Gauge theory for the Weak and Electromagnetic interaction, subsequently obtaining SU(2) × U(1) model. Even though, the work in this was continued in 1959, Salam had deeply convinced that all the elementary particle interactions are actually the Gauge interactions. In 1968, together with Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow, Salam formulated the mathematical concept of their work. While in Imperial College, Salam, along with Glashow and Jeffrey Goldstone, mathematically proved the Goldstone’s theorem, that a massless spin-zero object must appear in a theory as a result of spontaneous breaking of a continuous global symmetry. In 1960, Salam and Weinberg incorporated the Higgs mechanism, into Glashow’s discovery, giving a it a modern form in electroweak theory, thus theorized the Standard Model. In 1968, together with Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow, Salam finally formulated the mathematical concept of their work.

In 1966, Salam carried out the pioneering work on Magnetic photon— a Hypothetical particle. Salam showed the possible electromagnetic interaction between the Magnetic monopole and the C-violation, thus he formulated the Magnetic photon.

Following the publication of PRL Symmetry Breaking papers in 1964, Steven Weinberg and Salam were the first to apply the Higgs mechanism to electroweak symmetry breaking. Salam provided a mathematical postulation while observing the interaction between the Higgs boson and the electroweak symmetry theory.

In 1972, Salam began to work with Indian-American theoretical physicist Jogesh Pati. Pati was invited by Salam at the ICTP seminar in which Pati suggests that there should be some deep reason why the protons and electrons are so different yet to contrive or form to carry equal but opposite amount of electricity. Protons carry quarks, but the electroweak theory only worried about the electrons and neutrinos, and nothing postulated about quarks. Bringing all these nature’s ingredients together in one new symmetry, it might reveal a reason for the contrariety of these particles and the forces they feel. This led to a development of Pati-Salam model in particle physics. In 1973, Salam and Jogesh Pati were the first to notice that since Quarks and Leptons have very similar SU(2) × U(1) representation content, they all may have similar entities. They simply provided the simplest realization of the quark-lepton universality by postulating that “Lepton number is the fourth colour. Physicists believed that there are four fundamental forces of nature; gravitational force, strong and weak nuclear force, and the electromagnetic force. Salam had worked on the unification of these forces from 1959 with Glashow and Weinberg at the Imperial College. Salam was highly convinced that weak nuclear forces are not really different from electromagnetic forces, and two could inter-convert. Salam provided a theory that shows the unification of two fundamental forces of nature, strong and weak nuclear forces and the electromagnetic forces, one into another. From 1959, Salam had searched for such unity that takes place in them. In 1966, Glashow had formulated the same work, and the theory was combined in 1966. In 1967, Salam proved the theory mathematically, and finally published the papers. For this achievement, Salam, Glashow, and Weinberg were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979.

The Nobel Prize Foundation paid tribute to the scientists and issued a statement saying:

For their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current.

Government work
Salam immediately returned to Pakistan in 1960 to take charge of a government post that was given to him by President Field Marshal Ayub Khan. From her Independence, Pakistan has never had a coherent Science policy, and the total expenditure on research and development represent ~1.0% of Pakistan’s nature product. Even the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) headquarter was located in a small room, and less than 10 scientists were working on a fundamental concepts of physics. Salam replaced Salimuzzaman Siddiqui as Science Advisor, became first Member (technical) of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Salam expanded the web of physics research and development in Pakistan by sending more than 500 scientists abroad. On September 1961, Salam approached President Ayub Khan to set up the country’s first national space agency. On 16 September 1961, through an executive order, Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission was established, which Salam served as its first director. During 1960, a little work on development on science was done, and scientific activities in Pakistan were almost diminished. Salam had called Ishfaq Ahmad, a nuclear physicist, who left the country for Switzerland where he joined CERN, to Pakistan. With the support of Salam, PAEC established PAEC Lahore Center-6, with Ishfaq Ahmad as its first director. In 1967, Salam became a central and administrative figure to lead the research in both Theoretical and Particle physics. With the establishment of Institute of Physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, the research in theoretical and particle physics was engaged. Under Salam’s direction, physicists tackled the greatest outstanding problems in physics and mathematics. Another physicist, Raziuddin Siddiqui, established numerous physics research group and supervised the research activities in the academic institutions of Pakistan. Under the direction of Salam, research in physics reached its maximum point that prompted the worldwide recognition of Pakistani physicists.

From 1950s, Salam had tirelessly tried establishing a high-powered research institutes in Pakistan, though he was unable to do it. Salam moved PAEC Headquarters to a bigger building, and established research laboratories all over the country. On the advice of Salam, Ishrat Hussain Usmani set up plutonium and uranium exploration committees throughout the country. In October 1961, Salam traveled to the United States and signed an space-cooperation agreement with United States. on November 1961, NASA had built a space facility — Flight Test Range — in Balochistan where Salam served as its first technical director.

Abdus played an influential and significant role in Pakistan’s development in nuclear energy as well as weapons programme in 1972. In 1964, Salam was made head of Pakistan’s IAEA delegation and represented Pakistan for a decade. The same year, Salam joined Munir Ahmad Khan — Salam’s life-long friend and contemporary at Government College University. Khan was the first person in the IAEA that Salam had consulted about the establishment of International Centre for Theoretical Physics, a research physics institution, in Trieste, Italy. With an agreement signed with IAEA, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics was set up with Salam as its first director. At IAEA, Salam had tirelessly advocated the importance of nuclear power plants in his country. It was his efforts, in 1965, Canada and Pakistan signed a nuclear energy cooperation deal. Salam had obtained the permission from Ayub Khan — against the wishes of Ayub Khan’s own government — to set up the nuclear power plant near at the Karachi. In 1965, with the efforts led by Salam, the United States and Pakistan signed an agreement in which th U.S. provided a small research reactor. Salam had a long dream to established a research institute in Pakistan, for which he had advocated on many different occasions. In 1965, Salam and Edward Durrell Stone signed a contract for the establishment of Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology at Nilore, Islamabad.

Space Programme
Salam was the founder of Pakistan’s space programme as he was responsible for the establishment of the space research activities in Pakistan. On September 1961, Salam approach to President Field Marshal Ayub Khan to led the foundation of country’s first executive agency to coordinate space research. On 16 September 1961, through an executive order, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) was established of which Salam was made its first and founder director of the agency. Salam immediately traveled to United States, where he successfully signed an space cooperation agreement with United States Government. In November 1961, NASA built Flight Test Center (FTC) in Balochistan Province. During this time, Salam visited Air Force Academy where he met with Air Commodore (Brigadier-General) Wladyslaw Turowicz — a Polish military scientist and an aerospace engineer. Turowicz was made the first technical director of the space center, and a programme of rocket testing of insued. In 1964, while in the United States, Salam visited the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and met with nuclear engineers Salim Mehmud and Tariq Mustafa. Salam signed another agreement with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in which NASA launched a programme to provide training to Pakistan’s scientists and engineers. Both nuclear engineers returned to Pakistan in few months and were inducted in Suparco.

Nuclear Weapons Programme
Salam knew the importance of nuclear technology in Pakistan. From the start, Salam was a central figure in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program. In 1965, Salam led the establishing of the nuclear research institute—Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology. In 1965, the plutonium reactor Pakistan Atomic Research Reactor went critical under the leadership of Salam. In 1973, Salam proposed the idea of establishing the annual college in order to promote the scientific activities in the country to the Chairman of PAEC, Munir Ahmad Khan, who wholeheartedly accepted and fully supported this idea. This led to the establishment of the International Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary Needs (INSC), where each year since 1976 scientists from all over the world come to Pakistan to interact with Pakistani scientists. The first annual INSC conference was held on advanced particle and nuclear physics.

In November 1971, Salam met with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in his residence, and according to Bhutto’s advice, Salam went to United States to evade the 1971 Indo-Pak winter war. In 1971, Salam had traveled to the United States and returned to Pakistan with literature about the Manhattan Project. In 1972, the Government of Pakistan learned about the development status of the first atomic bomb completed under the Indian nuclear programme. In January 20 of 1972, at the Multan meeting, Bhutto orchestrated to develop the deterrence programme. Former Prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, formed a group of scientists and engineers, which was headed by Salam. In 1972, Salam, as Science advisor to the President, had managed and participated in a secret meeting of nuclear scientists with Bhutto in Multan, which came to be known as the “Multan Meeting”. Here, Bhutto entrusted Salam and appointed Munir Ahmad Khan as Chairman of the PAEC and head of the nuclear weapons program, as Salam had supported Khan. Few months after the meeting, Salam, along with Khan and Riazuddin, met with Bhutto in his residence where the scientists briefed Bhutto about the nuclear weapons program. After the meeting, Salam established the “Theoretical Physics Group (TPG)” in PAEC. Abdus had led groundbreaking work at the TPG and was initially headed by Salam until 1974.

An office was set up for Salam in the Prime ministers’ Secretariat by order of Bhutto. Salam immediately started to motivate and gravitate scientists to begin work with PAEC in the development of fission weapons. In December 1972, two theoretical physicists working at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics were asked by Salam to report to noted Pakistani nuclear engineer, Munir Ahmad Khan (late), then-PAEC chairman. This marked the beginning of the “Theoretical Physics Group (TPG)”, reporting directly to Salam. The TPG, in PAEC, was assigned to conduct research in Fast neutron calculations, Hydrodynamics (how the explosion produced by a chain reaction might behave), problems of neutron diffusion, and the development of theoretical designs of Pakistan’s nuclear weapon devices. Later, the Theoretical Physics Group working under the leadership of Riazuddin, who was also Salam’s student, began to directly report to Salam, and the work on the theoretical design of the nuclear weapon device was completed in 1977. Hence, Salam had led the groundbreaking work in the development of the weapons programme, with Khan. In 1972, Salam had formed the Mathematical Physics Group, under Raziuddin Siddiqui, that was charged, with the Theoretical Physics Group, to carry out the research in the theory of simultaneity during the detonation process, and mathematics involved in the theory of nuclear fission Following the India’s surprise nuclear test —Pokhran-I — in 1974, Munir Ahmad Khan had called for a meeting to initiate the work on atomic bomb, which was attended by Salam and where Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi was appointed head of the Directorate of Technical Development in PAEC. The DTD was set up to coordinate the work of the various specialized groups of scientists and engineers working on different aspects of the atomic bomb. The word “bomb” was never used in this meeting, but the participants fully understood what was being discussed. On March 1974, Salam and Khan also established the Wah Group Scientist that was charged with the manufacturing materials, explosive lenses and triggering mechanism development of the weapon. Following the setting up of DTD, Salam, along with Riazuddin and Munir Ahmad Khan, visited the Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) where they held talks and discussions with senior military engineers led by POF Chairman Lieutenant-General Qamar Ali Mirza. It was there that the Corps of Engineers built the Metallurgical Laboratory in Wah Cantt in 1976. Thus, the Wah Group working under the DTD was charged with the material and triggering mechanism development of the weapon. Salam remained associated with the nuclear weapons programme until 1974, when he left the country after Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims by the Pakistani Parliament. Although, he had left the country, Salam did not hesitate to advise the PAEC and Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Group on important scientific matters, and kept his close association with TPG and PAEC.

Death
Abdus Salam died peacefully on 21 November of 1996 at the age of 70 in Oxford, England, after a long illness. His body was finally brought back to Pakistan and kept in Darul Ziafat, where some 13,000 men and women visited to pay their last respects. Approximately 30,000 people attended his funeral prayers.

Salam was buried in Bahishti Maqbara, a cemetery established by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Rabwah, Pakistan next to his parents’ graves. The epitaph on his tomb initially read “First Muslim Nobel Laureate” but, because of Salam’s adherence to the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect, the word “Muslim” was later erased on the orders of a local magistrate, leaving the nonsensical “First Nobel Laureate”. Under Ordinance XX, Ahmadis are considered non-Muslims.

Honours
In 1997, scientists at ICTP renamed the institute as The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in the honour of Salam. Salam’s services have been recognized in Pakistan, as his students have openly spoken and stressed out the importance of Science and Technology in Pakistan.

In 1999, per the recommendation of Ishfaq Ahmad, the Federal Government led the establishment of Salam Chair in Physics at the Government College University. On November 22 of 2009, the Director of Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics had gifted the original Nobel Prize Certificate original to his alma mater. In 2011, GCU’s Salam Chair in Physics held a one day long conference that was attributed to Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam. Salam’s students dr. Ghulam Murtaza, dr. Perviaz Hoodbhoy, dr. Riazuddin and dr. Tariq Zaidi discussed the life and works of the Nobel Laureate, and lightened the achievement of Salam in Pakistan and in the Physics.

In 1998, the Edward A. Bouchet-ICTP Institute was renamed as Edward Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute. In 2003, Government of Punjab created the institute of excellence for the Mathematical Sciences, Abdus Salam School of Mathematics, in Salam’s Alma mater — Government College University.

In 2008, in an opinion, Daily Times called Salam as “one of the greatest scientist Pakistan has ever produced”. The Dawn Newspapers published an interview with Zakir Thaver, a Pakistani film director and producer, who is set to released another documentary film. In an editorial, the Dawn Newspapers called Abdus Salam as “the greatest physicist that comes from Pakistan”.

Awards
In 1979, Salam was awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Glashow and Weinberg, For their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current. Salam received high civil and science awards from all over the world. Salam is recipient of first high civil awards — Star of Pakistan (1959) and the Nishan-e-Imtiaz (1979) — awarded both by President of Pakistan for his outstanding services to Pakistan. The National Center for Physics (NCP) contains a Abdus Salam Museum dedicated to the life of Salam and his work as he discovered and formulated the Electroweak Theory. Below is the list of awards that were conferred to Salam in his lifetime.

Nobel Prize in Physics (Stockholm, Sweden)(1979)
Hopkins Prize (Cambridge University) for “the most outstanding contribution to Physics during 1957-1958”
Adams Prize (Cambridge University) (1958)
Smith’s Prize (Cambridge University) (1950)
Sitara-e-Pakistan for contribution to science in Pakistan (1959)
Pride of Performance Medal and Award (1959)
First recipient of Maxwell Medal and Award (Physical Society, London) (1961)
Hughes Medal (Royal Society, London) (1964)
Atoms for Peace Award (Atoms for Peace Foundation) (1968)
J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Medal and Prize (University of Miami) (1971)
Guthrie Medal and Prize (1976)
Sir Devaprasad Sarvadhikary Gold Medal (Calcutta University) (1977)
Matteuci Medal (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome) (1978)
John Torrence Tate Medal (American Institute of Physics) (1978)
Royal Medal (Royal Society, London) (1978)
Nishan-e-Imtiaz for outstanding performance in Scientific projects in Pakistan (1979)
Einstein Medal (UNESCO, Paris) (1979)
Shri R.D. Birla Award (India Physics Association) (1979)
Order of Andres Bello (Venezuela) (1980)
Order of Istiqlal (Jordan) (1980)
Cavaliere de Gran Croce dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (1980)
Josef Stefan Medal (Josef Stefan Institute, Ljublijana) (1980)
Gold Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Physics (Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague) (1981)
Peace Medal (Charles University, Prague) (1981)
Lomonosov Gold Medal (USSR Academy of Sciences) (1983)
Premio Umberto Biancamano (Italy) (1986)
Dayemi International Peace Award (Bangladesh) (1986)
First Edinburgh Medal and Prize (Scotland) (1988)
“Genoa” International Development of Peoples Prize (Italy) (1988)
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1989)
Catalunya International Prize (Spain) (1990)
Copley Medal (Royal Society, London) (1990)