Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday announced that Pakistan will send its "first person to space" in 2022.

"Proud to announce that selection process for the first Pakistani to be sent to space shall begin from Feb 2020," he shared. "Fifty people will be shortlisted — list will then come down to 25 and in 2022, we will send our first person to space."

"This will be the biggest space event of our history," added the PTI minister.

Speaking to Dawn.com, Chaudhry said that the Air Force will be the custodian of the selection process, adding that all around the world pilots are selected for space missions. He said that initially 50 pilots will be selected, from which the list will be brought down to 25 and then 10. The federal minister said that 10 pilots will be trained and eventually one pilot will be sent to space.

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Chaudhry said that there is an agreement between Pakistan and China and as the country does not have its own satellite launching facility, a Chinese facility will be used, as done previously.