Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood

Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood (or Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood, b. 1940) (Urdu: سلطان بشیر الدین محمود) is a Pakistani Nuclear Engineer, and Islamic scholar educated in Lahore and Britain. Born in Amritsar (India) his parents migrated to Pakistan in 1947. His father Ch. Sharif Khan was a local village leader (Numberdar) and put all his income to educate his eldest son who stood first in all examinations and got scholarship to study engineering at University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore graduating as an electrical engineer in 1962. He joined Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) as an engineer in 1964. He studied for his masters degree in nuclear engineering Manchester from 1967 to 1969 on a scholarship by the Pakistan's government and came back to his country to rejoin the nuclear program as a senior engineer at the KANNUP Nuclear Power Plant in Karachi from where he rose in ranks to eventually become the Director General of Nuclear Power at PAEC. He has written several books on Islam and Science, especially as relates to the Quranic writings with the present day science. He has also had a focus that is somewhat eschatological, predicting war and apocalypse (in the book "Cosmology and Human Destiny") in the years between 2008 and 2017 based upon sun spot activity. He founded the Holy Quran Reserach Foundation in 1986 a non-governmental scholarly society to reserach on science and Quran.

He is perhaps most famous for his part in the development of the Pakistani nuclear industry. In Pakistani nuclear circles he is considered to be the main architect of Pakistan's atomic bombFact|date=February 2007. In 1971 he invented an instrument, the "SBM probe", to check heavy water leaks in nuclear power plants which is still used world wide. Fact|date=February 2007 Mahmood was also in the news after his 2001 arrest in Pakistan for allegedly having contacts with the Taliban. During this time, he was questioned by the Central Intelligence Agency, although what actually happened is unsure, as Pakistani officials deny this.

Mahmood was assigned the task as the first Project Director of the Pakistan Nuclear Bomb Program named Kahuta Research Labs.Fact|date=February 2007 He is said to have visited the west a number of times to gather information for this program. Mahmood worked closely with Abdul Qadeer Khan, who is considered responsible for most of Pakistan's nuclear capabilities. Abdul Qadeer Khan worked as deputy to Bashir-ud-din Mahmood from 1974 to late 1976 after which A Q Khan became the Project Director and Bashir-ud-din was reverted back to Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission to work on indegenous production of nuclear power plants in the country. He is credited with the design of the Khushab nuclear power plant near Mianwali, a heavy water reactor that produces plutonium. Khushab is the primary source of plutonium for Pakistan.

He was an outspoken opponent of the Nawaz Sharif government as he was against signing of NPT by Pakistan, leading to his retirement in 1999, when he founded "Ummah Tameer e Nau" ("Reconstruction for the Islamic Community"), a Pakistani islamic charity (which has been reported to be affiliated with the Taliban through Mahmood's own alleged associations), which is also very active in Afghanistan. Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN) focused on educational institutions, hospitals, demining operations, and islamism. Fact|date=February 2007.

After release he has been out of public eye and lives in Islamabad. He has written over 15 books, the most well-known being "Doomsday and Life After Death", which is an analysis of the events leading to doomsday in light of scientific theories and Quranic knowledge. His also written a Tafseer of the Quran in English.

References

* cite news
author = Frantz, Douglas
coauthors = Rohde, David
title = A Nation Challenged: Biological Terror; 2 Pakistanis Linked to Papers on Anthrax Weapons
url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50E17FB3D590C7B8EDDA80994D9404482&
publisher = The New York Times
date = 28 November, 2001

External links

* [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v414/n6859/full/414003b0.html article] in "Nature" stating Mahmood was not arrested
* [http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/UTN.htm press] saying he was arrested