[1] Nayyar is known for voicing for education reforms and military arms control, which he directed research programs at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad.

[2]: 269 [5] Nayyar went to United Kingdom for his doctoral studies, attending the Imperial College in London where he obtained his PhD in condensed matter physics in 1973.

The report, which was intensely debated on public forums, eventually led to the government exercise to revise school curricula and textbooks (see: Pakistan Studies curriculum).

For over a year, he served as the Executive Director of Developments in Literacy, an organisation of Pakistani Americans for philanthropic intervention in education to disadvantaged communities in Pakistan.

He holds a visiting position at the Program on Science and Global Security of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, US, where he spends summer months conducting technical studies on issues in nuclear disarmament.