Syed Ali Nawab

Major-General Syed Ali Nawab (Urdu: سید علی نواب;b. 6 October 1925– 22 February 1994 ) (HI (m), SBt, TPk), was an engineering officer in the Pakistan Army Corps of EME, and a mechanical engineer who was known for his classified works in the development of atomic bomb at the Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL) in the 1970s.

He is associated with his research work in the Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL), mainly working on the operations of the computer numerical control (CNC) 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 using his influence as DG EME by carefully selecting and deputing the EME officers to staff ERL. In addition, known for appointing staff in London and Germany to help ERL import equipment

Among his colleagues at the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), 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.

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 went to attend Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) 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 and emigrated to Pakistan in 1949. In 1950, he joined the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in Kakul, and graduated at the top of his class.

In 1951, Nawab was commissioned in the Pakistan Army's Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (PEME) and was one of the few army officers directed by the Pakistani military to attend the Loughborough University where he gained MSc in mechanical engineering in 1954. He was admitted as the "MIMechE:" at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) 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 1957–60, 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 was then 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, and qualified as an ordnance specialist.

In 1960–64, Lieutenant-Colonel Nawab was appointed assistant director of the EME director at the Army GHQ. 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 (MoD) 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
After the third war with India in 1971, Col. Nawab was posted back at the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering as an inspector-general for inspection for the military equipment and vehicles at the Army GHQ, later promoted as one-star rank general, Brigadier, in 1972–75.

In 1975, Nawab was promoted 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 Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s control rather than the Army, Nawab’s first appointment as a Major General was in the Ministry of Defense as DG MVRDE in 1975, where he could work directly with the newly appointed Secretary of Defense, Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan at the Ministry of Defense without arousing suspicion

Nawab was transferred to the position of Director General Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME) on May 6, 1976 until 6 December 1976. During this time, then-Defence Secretary Ghulam Ishaq Khan directed Major-General Nawab to supervise the establishing of Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL); and made him responsible 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 was instructed by the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan to transfer Nawab to the post of DG EME in the Army 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 the ERL, Nawab established the machine shop at the 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 (PALTO) 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 1977–78, Major-General Nawab was moved to be appointed as Chairman of Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) 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 from his rank, as junior officers were promoted to higher ranks. However, Nawab was given an extension of three years to resume his classified works with the KRL.. This was unsurprising since Prime Minister Bhutto and General Tikka Khan had both been jailed; and Nawab’s boss Defense Secretary Ghulam Ishaq Khan was moved to the Ministry of Finance. Subsequently, Ghulam Ishaq Khan had to bring Zia up to speed on details of the project and convince Zia to give Nawab the extension.

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 found the small engineering consulting firm, the Experts Advisory Cell (EAC), 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.