Several historical and political events and personalities in the 1960s and early 1970s led Pakistan to gradually transition to a program of nuclear weapons development, that began in 1972.

[1]: 182–183 [7][9]: 470–476  Chagai-I was the result of over two decades of planning and preparation, Pakistan becoming the seventh of eight states that have publicly admitted to testing nuclear weapons.

[7][9]: 470–476  The Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) conducted tests[1]: 182  to select a "bone dry" mountain capable of withstanding a 20–40 kilotonne (kt) detonation from the inside.

Due to widespread imprecise reporting which mentioned the Chagai Hills region prior to the actual explosion, there is sometimes geographic confusion.

[15] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif curtailed his state visit to Kazakhstan to meet with President Nursultan Nazarbayev and returned to Pakistan.

[5] At the NSC's cabinet meeting, the Pakistani government, military, scientific, and civilian officials were participating in a debate, broadening, and complicating the decision-making process.

"[1]: 271–275  Concluding the final arguments, Ishfaq Ahmad said: "Mr. Prime Minister, take a decision and, Insha'Allah, I give you the guarantee of success".

[1]: 276–277 With the G8 group's sanctions having very little effect on India and skepticism towards United States commitment, the Pakistani government economists built up the final consensus hardening around the idea that "there is no economic price for security".

[11][17]: 104–105  Despite being under pressure by U.S. President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Sharif authorized the nuclear tests by ordering the PAEC in Urdu: "Dhamaka kar dein" (lit.

")[1]: 277 In May 1998, a C-130 aircraft with four escorting F-16 Falcon jets secretly flew the completely knocked down sub-assembly nuclear devices from Rawalpindi to Chagai.

[26] Shortly after the tests, former chairman and technical director Munir Ahmad Khan famously quoted: "These boosted devices are like a half way stage towards a thermonuclear bomb.

They use elements of the thermonuclear process, and are effectively stronger atom bombs..... Pakistan has had a nuclear capability since 1984 and all the Pakistani devices were made with enriched uranium.

[5] As opposed to India's thermonuclear approach, Dr. N. M. Butt, senior scientist, stated that "PAEC built a sufficient number of neutron bombs— a battlefield weapon that is essentially a low yield device".

Senior scientists and engineers were invited by academic institutes and universities to deliver lectures on mathematical, theoretical, nuclear and particle physics.

[4] The Chagai-I tests were condemned by the European Union, the United States, Japan, Iraq,[30] and by many non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries.

[35] The three main development teams were the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) (including Ishfaq Ahmad, who was Chairman of the PAEC; Samar Mubarakmand; Irfan Burney, Anwar Ali; Hafeez Qureshi and Masud Ahmad), the Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL) (including Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was Director General of KRL; and Tasneem M. Shah), and the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers and 19 Engineers Battalion have rendered their services (PACE) (including Lieutenant-General Zulfikar Ali Khan).

In 1999, the government established a museum at the National Center for Physics, where Salam's contribution to scientific programs and efforts were recorded and televised.