ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan flag will be raised on January 1 at headquarters of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research — or CERN — to mark Pakistan’s formal entry into the world’s premier scientific organisation engaged in investigating fundamental structure of the universe.

Pakistan has become the first Asian country to be admitted to CERN as associate member.

A document formalising the grant of associate membership to Pakistan was signed on Friday at the PM Secretariat, and in the presence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, by CERN’s Director-General Rolf Heuer and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Chairman Ansar Parvez.

Pakistan becomes first Asian country to get the honour

The associate membership of CERN would allow Pakistani scientists to attend its meetings and participate in its governance.

They would be able to take part in its training and career development programmes and might even become its staff members.

The relationship would also open up possibilities for industrial colla­boration in advanced technology.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Heuer said that Pakistan had been granted entry into CERN after its council had reported that the country enjoyed sound technological background and its government was serious in promoting scientific and technological education.

“Pakistan has been a strong participant in CERN’s endeavours in science and technology since the 1990s and bringing nations together in a peaceful quest for knowledge and education was one of the most important missions of CERN,” he remarked.

“We welcome Pakistan as a new member and look forward to enhancing cooperation with it in the near future,” he added.

On the occasion, Mr Parvez said: “It is indeed a historic day for science in Pakistan. Signing of the agreement is a reward for the collaboration of our scientists, engineers and technicians with CERN over the past two decades.”

The membership, he said, would open up numerous opportunities. “Science is not just a pursuit of knowledge but also a basic requirement to help build a nation.”

Though Pakistan was not among the technologically advanced countries but the country had “several pockets of excellence”, Mr Ansar added.

Two teams of about 30 Pakistani engineers are already working at CERN.

Pakistan contributed to building the CMS and ATLAS experiments and even today it is helping in ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb experiments besides running a tier-2 computing centre in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid.

Pakistan is also involved in works relating to CERN’s accelerators, making it an important partner for the European organisation.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2014