A commemorative day for a nation, besides being an occasion of celebration, gives an opportunity to take stock of achievements, and acknowledge those who brought the laurels for the motherland. It also allows for becoming cognizant of the future challenges and to find solutions for them by further course correcting and prioritizing strategies thus paving the way for national development.

Pakistan since its inception had to face the challenge of establishing institutes that would set the ball rolling for its national development. Institution building was inevitable if Pakistan was to prosper and move ahead. Credits must be given to those who, inspired by the atoms for peace initiative of American president Eisenhower, thought it fit to establish and benefit from the use of nuclear science and technology and utilize it for socio-economic development of the country.

Notwithstanding the shortage of resources, an S&T set up; the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission PAEC was established in 1956 to make use of this international trend of atoms for peace. That humble beginning was to encompass a whole gambit of national development goals viz Agriculture, Health, followed by Power Generation, industrial design and manufacture and their required human resource. Few organizations would claim to serve the nation in so many versatile and high-tech fields as PAEC has and as if today is fully committed and equipped to do so in future as well.

Nuclear technology plays a pivotal role in addressing the world's energy, health, and agricultural needs. Nuclear innovation is also a key tool used to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. After committing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, Pakistan became the first country in the world to adopt the SDGs as its own national development goals through a National Assembly Resolution in February 2016. For each major application of nuclear technology PAEC has a dedicated setup of labs to utilize it. Out of the 17 goals of this agenda, PAEC contributes to 11 of them directly or indirectly. According to FAO some of the most innovative ways being used to improve agriculture practices involve nuclear technology.

PAEC has given considerable importance to the promotion ofthe use of nuclear techniques for the development of agriculture in the country. This is evident from the fact that PAEC recruited its first biologist way back in 1958 which was followed by the establishment of Radiobiology Division in early 60's at Atomic Energy Centre, Lahore. Subsequently, first Atomic Energy Agriculture Research Center was established in 1962 at Tandojam which was followed by one institute established each in Punjab and KPK namely Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) in 1972, Nuclear Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) at Peshawar in 1982 and National institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) at Faisalabad in 1994.

he research in all these centers has been primarily focused on the utilization of nuclear techniques to produce important crop varieties, development of better methods of conservation of inputs and products which provides food security in environment friendly manner by being sustainable by improving land and water productivity and integrated management of pests and diseases. So far these centers have produced 148 high yield, weather tolerant& highly adapted varieties of crops. Recently the Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) has been designated as an IAEA Collaborating Centre in agriculture and biotechnology. NIAB is also a national laboratory under the IAEA's ZODIAC initiative.

Nuclear medicine is an integral part of diagnostic and sometimes therapeutic health management, organ imaging relies heavily on radioisotopic techniques also.

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) started its journey of establishing cancer diagnosis & treatment facilities from 1960 in Pakistan. Recently, 19thcancer hospital completed and started operation in 2022. 20thcancer treatment facility is under construction at Muzaffarabad, AJ&K. These facilities are testimonials to PAEC unwavering support to cancer care services and peaceful use of nuclear technologies. It is worth mentioning that PAEC's 19 cancer hospitals established in all provinces of Pakistan are shouldering the responsibility of diagnosing and treating over 80% of the country's cancer- affected patients. More than 1.8 million patients got treated at PAEC cancer care hospitals this year.

Lately,CyberKnife, a new cancer treatment facility was inaugurated at the flagship cancer care hospital , Nuclear Medicine Oncology and Radiotherapy Institute (N0RI) Islamabad by DG IAEA through which Pakistan would be able to support its neighbors for cancer treatment access by becoming a regional centre under 'Rays of Hope' — an IAEA initiative seeking to increase cancer care access in low-and middle-income countries by helping to introduce and improve radiation medicine capacities and build the cancer care workforce. Pakistan, under the aegis of PAEC currently operates six nuclear power plants at two sites generating 10 percent of electricity through nuclear of the country's total and almost a quarter of its low-carbon electricity. The history of Pakistan's nuclear power generation program goes back to 1965 when PAEC started construction ofthe first Nuclear Power Plant namely KANUPP of 137 MW capacity commenced in Karachi. Since then, PAEC has constructed four Nuclear Power Plants at Chashma. The first Generation-Ill technology plant, the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2 (K-2) went into commercial operation on 21st May, 2021 while Pakistan's second Generation-III nuclear power plant named K-3 of 1100MW capacity got inaugurated this year. With induction of this unit, Karachi nuclear power generation site alone has started providing 2200 MW of much needed electricity to the national grid and as a whole the nuclear power generation capacity of Pakistan has reached more than 3500 MW. Currently, preparations for embarking upon another similar plant named C-5 at Chashma are in the final stage.

An elaborate and diversified engineering set up of PAEC successfully caters to design, manufacturing & testing of mechanical equipment for medium and heavy industries in accordance with the International Codes and Standards especially for Power Plants, Chemical and Petrochemical Plants and other Industrial Projects for itself and the national industry. These setups are well equipped with modern engineering manufacturing and fabrication facilities geared toward attaining excellence. A set up of PAEC, viz Heavy mechanical complex- 3,HMC-3 is one of the largest industrial projects in the heavy engineering sector of Pakistan.

Moreover, as safe operation of NPPs and other industries is strongly dependent on the reliable non-destructive inspection during their pre-service and in-service, one of PAEC entity National Centre for Non-Destructive Testing (NCNDT) is providing, inspection, testing, training, calibration, qualification, certification, condition assessment and root cause analysis services to PAEC and national industry to meet the requirements in accordance with local and international standards.

From its inception realizing the importance of manpower development PAEC imitated a proactive and systematic program for indigenous human resource development. As early as 1967, a small training facility called training school, later called Centre for Nuclear Studies which eventually acquired university status named PIEAS was established. Where under bachelors and master and PhD programs education is being imparted in nuclear engineering, radiation physics, chemical engineering along with so many.

While summarizing some of the services PAEC renders for nation utilizing nuclear technology, let us all remember on this Yaum-e-Takbeer that patriotism is not short frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of life time to one's country. Following this tradition we all should be fully determined in letter and spirit and pledge to serve the nation through hard work and dedication for achieving the cherished goals of national development.

PAEC: In the Quest for Socioeconomic Development of Pakistan

By Hafiz Abdul Nasir

Socioeconomic development deals with the transformation of a society on social and economic fronts. The ultimate goal of socioeconomic development is to achieve sustainability at the highest possible level of human development and translate it into the lives of people. Among these, food security, healthcare and education are of prime importance as they play a pivotal role in the socioeconomic uplift of a country.

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) is a leading Research and Development Organisation of the country. Since its inception, the organisation has been committed to serve the nation in various fields with the peaceful use of nuclear technology for socioeconomic betterment of Pakistan. The organisation is also proactively involved in pursuing 11 out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations and adopted by IAEA programme, to be achieved by 2030.

Since Pakistan is an agrarian economy, therefore sustainable growth of this sector is of paramount importance for food security and rural development. Agriculture sector has also multiple interconnections with the overall economy. Besides providing employment opportunities to 37.4 percent of the labourforce and contributing 22.7 percent to the country's GDP it is also a major contributor towards foreign exchange earnings. But unfortunately, loss of agricultural land poses a serious threat to this sector. Each year plenty of land becomes unusable due to soil degradation and rampant urbanisation. Also, agricultural land has deteriorated and became uncultivable due to torrential rains causing catastrophic floods last year that submerged almost one-third of the country. According to World Bank, total agricultural land of Pakistan was once 50 percent of the total land area in 1980 that has been reduced to 47 percent in 2018. On the other hand, a comparison of population growth of Pakistan for the same period shows that it increased almost threefold since 1980. So, the bottom line is that the country needs more mouths to feed by increasing per acre yield with the help of modern science and technology.

The history of PAEC in the field of agriculture dates back to ’60s of the last century, when Atomic Energy Agricultural Research Centre was established in Tando Jam, Sindh. The Centre introduced nuclear techniques in the field of agriculture, for better survivability and yield of various crops. The centre later renamed as Nuclear Institute of Agriculture. In addition to this, there are three more agriculture centres being run under the aegis of PAEC, NIAB and NIBGE in Faisalabad; and NIFA in Peshawar.

These agricultural institutes serve the nation in the fields such as biotechnology & genetic engineering, plant breeding, enhancement of crop production & protection, plant physiology, soil fertility, water conservation & management, and value addition to the food products by using nuclear and other contemporary techniques for sustainable agricultural growth. These centres also organize Farmer's Day on regular basis as part of awareness programmes. Furthermore, these centres are also striving hard to achieve 'Zero Hunger' SDG as they have produced 147 high-yield, pest-tolerant and climate-resilient crop varieties. During his maiden visit to Pakistan in February this year, DG IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi inaugurated ZODIAC Lab at NIAB and declared the centre as IAEA Collaborating Centre for capacity building in agricultural research.

PAEC is also playing an indispensable role in achieving 'Good Health and Well-being' SDG. According to WHO, cancer is amongst the leading cause of death around the world, representing almost 10 million deaths in 2020. PAEC has established 19 Atomic Energy Cancer Hospitals (AECHs) across the length and breadth of the country. In line with the IAEA's slogan, 'Cancer Care for AH', these hospitals share the major burden of cancer patients and serve around a million patients each year. AECHs are also making all-out efforts in lessening the miseries of cancer patients by providing state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment facilities. AECHs have also introduced Theranostics in Pakistan, which is an advanced mode of treatment for prostate cancer and Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia. The most important attribute of AECHs is that they don't refuse treatment to any cancer patient based on the progression of the disease or due to financial constraints. So, the poor cancer patients get free/subsidized treatment facilities through Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal and Patients Welfare Societies.

With the inauguration of CyberKnife facility at AECH-NORI by the DG IAEA on February 15, 2023, PAEC achieved a historical landmark and became the first-ever public sector cancer hospital of the country to provide cancer patients with this ultra-modern mode of treatment. PAEC has put another feather in its cap with the inauguration of Diagnostic Center Narowal - a satellite centre to provide diagnostic services to the countrymen of north-eastern Punjab. The facility was inaugurated by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal on March 18,2023.

Apropos to 'Quality Education' SDG, PAEC has established several high-ranking educational institutes like PIEAS, KINPOE, CHASCENT and a number of schools and colleges. On top of that, PAEC's agricultural centres are also contributing in human resource development in the field of agricultural research by offering internships and training courses as well as by conducting workshops. NIAB and NIBGE offer M.Phil and PhD programmes in the field of Biology and Biotechnology. Moreover, NIBGE is also an affiliate centre of International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. These institutes are contributing remarkably in human resource and socioeconomic development by imparting quality education to achieve the above SDG. Hopefully, PAEC will continue its legacy of public service through innovation and hard work. Other state institutions should also follow in PAEC's footsteps for socioeconomic development of Pakistan.

By SaimaDurrani

(The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at abdulnasirl144@gmail.com)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023