Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood (; b. 1940;, ) is a Pakistani nuclear engineer and a scholar of Islamic studies. He was the subject of a criminal investigation launched by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) over unauthorized travel in Afghanistan prior to the September 11 attacks in 2001. Having spent a distinguished career in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), he founded the Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN) in 1999 – a right-wing organisation that was banned and sanctioned by the United States in 2001. Mahmood was among those who were listed and sanctioned by the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee in December 2001. Having been cleared by the FIA, he has been living in anonymity in Islamabad, authoring books on the relationship between Islam and science. His son Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry was appointed as Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (DG - ISPR), the media wing of the Pakiatan army in December 2022 Life and education Mahmood was born in Amritsar, Punjab, British India to a Punjabi family. There are conflicting reports concerning his date of birth; his personal admission noted the birth year as 1940, while the UN reports estimated as 1938. His father, Chaudhry Muhammad Sharif Khan, was a local Zamindar (lit. feudal lord). His family emigrated from India to Pakistan following religious violence in India in 1947; the family settled in Lahore, Punjab. After graduating with distinctions from a local high school standing at top of his class, Mahmood was awarded a scholarship and enrolled at the Government College University to study electrical engineering. After spending a semester, he transferred to the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science with honours in 1960. His credentials led him to join the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) where he gained another scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. In 1962, Mahmood went to attend the University of Manchester where he studied for a double master's degree. First completing a masters' programme in control systems in 1965, he then received another master's degree in nuclear engineering in 1969 from the University of Manchester. While in Manchester, Mahmood was an expert on the Manhattan Project and was reportedly in contact with South African scientists in discussing the jet-nozzle method for uranium enrichment. However, it remains unclear how much interaction was taken place during that time. Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Mahmood joined the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC)