Khan Research Laboratories

The Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories (shortened as KRL), is a federally funded and research and development national laboratory located in Kahuta at a short distance of Rawalpindi in Punjab, Pakistan. Established in 1976, the laboratory is best known for its central role in Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and its understanding the uranium science.

Established in 1976, it was originally organized as a top-secret plant dedicated to enrichment as a response to the India's detonation of its first nuclear bomb in 1974. Chosen for its remote yet relatively accessible location from Rawalpindi, it was designated as national defense laboratory in 1981. In the 1970s, the site was the cornerstone of the first stage of Pakistan's atomic bomb program, and serves as the center for conducting the nuclear scientific research.

It is universally known for its research in gas centrifuges to produce the enriched uranium; and in past, it competed with the second lab in Nilore on wide variety of weapon designs but it is now have focused in civilian missions, including the national security, space exploration, fusion science, and supercomputing.

While owned by the federal government, the KRL is now sponsored by the Ministry of Defense and managed through its contractor, the Strategic Plans Division.