YaNabi Social Network

CALGARY - Canada's newest and largest mosque opened Saturday in Calgary, praised by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as an "architectural treasure."
 
Harper also strongly defended the Ahmadiyya community - an offshoot Muslim sect persecuted in some countries - for building a mosque that demonstrates "the true and benevolent face of Islam."

"This community knows first-hand what it is to experience persecution and discrimination based on your religious beliefs," he said following a tour of the sprawling mosque complex.

The Ahmadiyya community in Oslo has been running their New Year's clean up operation for the past five years.

In 1961, on the advice of Prof. Abdus Salam, the then Scientific Adviser to the President of Pakistan, it was decided to set up a Committee dealing with space sciences. Initially the Space Sciences Research Wing had the following members:
 
 Prof Abdus Salam, FRS - Chairman
 Dr I H Usmani, Chairman PAEC - Vice-Chairman
 Mr Sibte Nabi Naqvi, Director, Pakistan Meteorological Department - Member
 Dr Innas Ali, Member PAEC - Member
 
On 07 June 1962 at 1953 hours the two-stage rocket: Rehbar-I consisting of a Nike-Cajun combination (which was earlier developed by NASA) was successfully launched from Sonmiani Rocket Range. It carried a payload of 80 pounds of sodium and soared to about 130 km into the atmosphere. With the launching of Rehbar-I, Pakistan had the honour of becoming the third country in Asia and the tenth in the world to conduct such a launching. The other countries, which had, until then, already conducted launchings of this type were: USA, USSR, UK, France, Sweden, Italy, Canada, Japan and Israel. Rehbar-II was also successfully launched from Sonmiani Rocket Range on 09 June 1962.

The idea of a joint Commission of countries of the South originally came from Pakistani Nobel Laureat, Prof. Dr. Abdus Salam, in acknowledgement of the increasingly widening gap of knowledge as well as development between the North and the South. It was realized that sustainable socio-economic development in the South cannot be achieved without building and sustaining indigenous capacities in science and technology and that the strengthening of South-South and North-South collaboration, and exchange of technical know-how, is imperative for generation and sustenance of such capacities. Professor Salam's enthusiasm and personal approach motivated a number of heads of states and governments of developing nations to join forces on the platform of the Commission.

In the mid 50’s the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was instituted and the majority of these nuclear trained students of Professor Chaudhri coming out from this laboratory were employed by the PAEC in early 60’s by the then Chairman of PAEC, Dr. I. H. Usmani. With the advice of Prof. A. Salam, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, Dr. Usmani planned the further training of these students in a variety of areas pertaining to nuclear radiation handling and research and in all important specialities for Nuclear Science and Engineering. This human resource formed the back bone of the development of the Nuclear Science and Technology in Pakistan in the form of several independent centres. This included the Nuclear Medical Centres, Nuclear Agriculture Centres, the Nuclear Uranium Exploration Centres, Nuclear Power Reactors and the classified programme of successful Nuclear Defense of Pakistan, all under the management of PAEC.

...

Dr. I. H. Usmani as the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and Prof. A. Salam (who later in 1979 became Nobel Laureate in Physics) as Science Advisor to the President of Pakistan in those years launched a very successful scheme of training young persons for their Ph.D’s abroad.

...

These highly trained persons came back by the end of 60’s or early 70’s at the newly established nuclear institute., under the name of PINSTECH where the major nuclear facility was the 5MW Swimming Pool Research Reactor. This research reactor was Pakistan’s first reactor and was one of the latest nuclear facilities of the type. PINSTECH, a brain child of Salam and Usmani, during 70’s and 80’s flourished with foreign trained nuclear scientists specialized in various important disciplines (such as Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Nuclear Electronics, Nuclear Safety, Health Physics, Nuclear Metallurgy, Reactor Physics, Laser Physics, Nuclear Chemistry and also Nuclear Engineers (trained in operation, design and maintenance of reactors).

...

Since its inception in the fiftees the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission has been encouraged in expanding the use of nuclear science and technology for the public benefits. When Gen. Ayub Khan came into power as President of Pakistan in late 50’s, the programme got good support. With the appointment of Dr. I. H. Usmani (a beurocrat with a Ph.D in atomic physics from the Imperial College, London) as Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1960, the programme although for civil use sprang up in great dimensions for Nuclear Power Plants, Nuclear Agricultural Centres, Nuclear Medical Centres and for Nuclear Applications in Industry and other uses in general. Importance of this programme was further enhanced as Prof. A. Salam (Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1979) was appointed as Scientific Advisor to the President of Pakistan.

The informal scientific co-operation between CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) and Pakistan dates back to the 1960s, when Pakistan was introduced to CERN through Abdus Salam, the country's only Nobel Laureate. Salam had a desire that a group of Pakistani scientists commit themselves to both theoretical and experimental high-energy physics. On the suggestion of Salam, stacks of nuclear emulsion exposed at CERN were provided to Pakistan for the study of pions, kaons and antiprotons. In this informal co-operation, Owen Lock from CERN and the newly created Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) played an important role.

The First College of the series was held in the summer of 1976 at Nathiagali which lent it the name. The idea proved to be a big success and the College has now evolved into an institution and become a prestigious event in the scientific calendar of this part of the world. This College is perhaps the only one of its kind to be organized in a developing country, covering a wide range of topics of science and emphasizing their applications to the contemporary needs of the society.