Recently, the CERN (Conseil européen pour la Recherche nucléaire) delegation visited Pakistan to assess its performance as an Associate Member. This visit marked something more than a scientific venture. For Pakistan, it was a recognition of its nuclear dignity, and for the world, it was a big question mark on the rigid, exclusionary practices of the outdated post-Cold War era nuclear order. Can this rigidity prevail in this era of scientific advancements requiring equitable cooperation?
The core issue is Pakistan’s membership status at CERN. It is a test of whether global scientific institutions, beyond treaties like the NPT, can recognize countries on merit and not politics. Pakistan’s globally recognized nuclear safety and security architecture suggests that its exclusion stems from structural biases rather than lack of capability, experience or commitment. Henceforth, the visit to CERN is much more than a scientific venture. It is rather a sign that the country’s credentials place it on high merit to be included in the world’s leading hub of science and technology.
The relationship of Pakistan and CERN dates back a decade of consistent partnership. After becoming an associate member in 2015, the country took part in the groundbreaking enterprises led by the European Nuclear Agency, CERN. Pakistani engineers and scientists played an integral role in the development of one of the humanity’s most ambitious projects, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The collaborations involved Pakistan’s iconic institutions of science and technology, such as the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) and the National Center for Physics (NCP).
This visit marks that the contribution is not peripheral. The three dividends yielded by the associate membership of the country: students, engineers, and scientists, proved to be valuable assets for CERN. Where it gained access to the cutting-edge global programs of CERN, Pakistan contributed back with its skilled technical force. Now arises the point whether these half-measures gained by associate membership of CERN do justice to the scale of this collaboration. The case rests not only upon the scientific contributions but also upon the technical merits and credibility of Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure. The country’s nuclear program has long been subject to misperceptions, nevertheless, today this narrative has become redundant. Pakistan has been a responsible nuclear power which also trains the IAEA member states regarding nuclear safety and security. Furthermore, the country was elected as a member of the IAEA board of governors for the 21st time in 2023. Election to one of the most influential bodies of the IAEA is not automatic, but a testament to the intentional confidence to contribute constructively.
Last year, Director General IAEA Mariano Rafael Grossi publicly praised the nuclear infrastructure of Pakistan upon his visit. He also highlighted the country’s contribution to the peaceful application of nuclear technologies. DG IAEA commended the vast expansion of Pakistan’s utilization of nuclear energy and techniques for health, agriculture, and industries, to name a few. This is a staunch validation that the nuclear infrastructure of Pakistan is a responsible architecture, not a rogue outlier.
Besides governance, these achievements speak volumes about Pakistan’s peaceful nuclear contribution. Pakistan hosts four collaborating centers of the IAEA that are the National Institute for Safety and Security (NISAS), the Nuclear Research and Development Center at Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), the National Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB), and the Water Resource Management Center at PINSTECH. This reality is often neglected in the Western discourse that Pakistan’s civil nuclear program is integrally involved in the global scientific and development initiatives.
The strategic significance of Pakistan’s full membership of CERN comes into play here. From a long time, Pakistan has been excluded from the incorporation into the nuclear governance institutions that are directly or indirectly controlled by the NPT-led archaic criterion. The country’s membership of nuclear export cartels including the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG), were also selectively judged by this criterion.
CERN’s mission is an unbiased pursuit of fundamental science. Pakistan’s scientific ability and institutional responsibility make its case for full membership one, based on merit, not geopolitics. Whereas its exclusion in the global nuclear order highlights politics, not scientific criteria. By granting full CERN membership to Pakistan, an encouraging precedent can be set that the global nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes functions on merit and not Cold War-era structural hierarchies. Eventually, this will strengthen the legitimacy of international science and technology. Being a defining moment, this membership has global implications as well. At this time of multipolarity and fragmentation, this science diplomacy can bridge regions. As CERN was formed during the Cold War to connect Europe, now its expansion to South Asia can connect the Global South which is usually overshadowed by nuclear rivalries. For Pakistan, the benefits of this membership will be both material and symbolic. It will reflect that knowledge is a global common and for the welfare of humanity. Through strong institutional linkages, it can gain recognition and contribute more to the collective good. As for the world, it will send a strong message that science has the potential to outpace politics and that performance and merit are the sole determinants of benefits and inclusion. It is a moment to seize and prove that the world community can triumph over outdated hierarchies.
This article was published in another form at https://www.atomicreporters.com/2025/10/guest-article-turning-the-page-time-for-cern-to-make-pakistan-a-full-member/
Ms Anam Murad Khan is Research Assistant at the Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS), Islamabad.
