In 2007, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, the Founding Project-Director of the PAEC Uranium Enrichment Project, commented on the origins of Pakistan’s enrichment program:

In October 1974, he called me to his office and asked me to prepare a detailed report on various technologies for uranium enrichment. He was so anxious to get this project started that he wanted the report the next day. In this report I discussed laser, diffusion, jet nozzle and centrifuge methods for uranium enrichment. Finally we went for centrifuge technology for uranium enrichment. We were familiar with centrifuge technology since 1967 when a small study group was formed by Dr. Naeem Ahmad Khan at Atomic Energy Centre, Lahore, which included Hafeez Qureshi, myself and Dr. Samar Mubarakmand.”

”By the end of 1975, all essential machinery and equipment for the enrichment project had been procured had arrived in Pakistan. We had also begun indigenous R & D on the project.”