: 79 [11] Negotiations and talks took place with Canada over the supply of the nuclear power plant in Karachi and the contract was signed with General Electric Canada as the designer and employed the Montreal Engineering Company as its civil engineering firm in 1965.: 141–142 [5] The nuclear power plant was jointly designed by the engineers of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and the Canada's General Electric to provide distinction and difference from the India's nuclear research reactors such as CIRUS and Dhruva reactors that uses the same CANDU technology.

: 80 [13] In 1966, the civil engineering and construction started by the Montreal Engineering Co. which finished its construction in 1971.: 143 [5] The nuclear power plant attained criticality on 1 August 1971, and commenced on producing full power generation on 2 October 1972.: 141 [5] On 28 November 1972, President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto inaugurated the Karachi Nuclear Plant when it was connected with the grid system of K-Electric, an investor-owned energy supply utility based in Karachi.

[12] Despite Canadian scepticism, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission was able to work on producing deuterium oxide at lesser price, and set up the machine shop to manufacture its machinery and tools near nuclear power plant with the assistance from Karachi University.

[12] The Canadian ejection from the project turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it allowed the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission establish its own machine shops, welding facilities, and training centers with the help from Karachi University that proved to be pivotal on country's production of able machinists and qualified welders as well as nuclear fuel cycle technology.

[16] Many of spare parts and machine components were locally designed that kept the nuclear power plant running its grid operation in safe manner– the valuable experience gained was shared to Chinese officials in designing the reactor safety protocols and eventually helped run the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant in 1993.

: 141 [5] It was originally known as "KANUPP"—later classified as K1 in 2010s—that used the water-cooled deuterium oxide (D2O or heavy water) moderator with natural uranium serving it as its fuel.

[19] In 2010, a multi-effect distillation (MED) process source was connected to Karachi Nuclear Power Plant that can produce 1600 m3/d of potable water.

[23][26][27] The K-2 is a pressurized water reactor (PWR) supplied by the China National Nuclear Corporation, and is jointly designed by the engineers of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

[17] According to Dr. Ansar Pervaiz, then Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, said that Chinese banks have provided $6.5 Bn for this project as loans and the cold testing of the reactor system at the KANUPP-2 was commenced on 9 December 2019.

[38][40] On 28 May 2021, the nuclear power plant was operationalized with nation's energy system and was inaugurated with Prime Minister Imran Khan.

[43] On 1 January 2022, the fuel loading started on;[44] and the nuclear power reactor was connected to the national grid system on 4 March 2022.

[47] From 1972 to 1979, the nuclear power plant operated with relatively high availability capacity factors up to 70% – it provided the electricity and energy to the whole city of Karachi.

: 143 [5] Between 1972 and 1992, the nuclear power plant generated the energy about 7.9 billion units of electricity with an average lifetime availability capacity factor of 55.9%.

[8][28] The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant is owned by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission which runs the operations through regulations provided by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) that is responsible for licensing, inspection and ensuring the safety procedures taking place while running the power plant.

[50] Energy site contractors The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant received wide range of media publicity and fame when it was inaugurated by President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on 2 November 1972, accompanied by nation's top scientists and high ranking civic officials.

[12] The welding facility, tool manufacturing, and machine shops near the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant were eventually established by Parvez Butt (a mechanical engineer) to support the nuclear power operations of the plant in successive years— Butt was honored with nation's highest honor for this contribution.