Abdul Qadeer Khan
After his graduation from Punjab University, Ali found employment with the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in 1967 as a scientific officer at the Atomic Energy Center in Lahore. He joined the Nuclear Engineering Division alongside with Bashiruddin Mahmood, an engineer, and aided in the investigations on the uranium enrichment under Bashiruddin Mahmood in May 1974. Ali was an original member of the uranium investigation team that was working with Mahmood as a principle investigator under advice from Abdul Qadeer Khan. Ali was posted back to Engineering Division of the PAEC after Abdul Qadeer Khan took over the program after moving it at the Khan Research Laboratories in Kahuta.