Nuclear Capability an Inexorable Option for Pakistan.

Byline: Brigadier Muhammad Asif (r)

Pakistan is one of the seven countries in the world that are formally known to possess nuclear weapons with an indigenously developed credible delivery system. Owing to its economic woes and tremendous international pressure, Pakistan has been paying dearly to acquire and safeguard its nuclear assets, which the entire Pakistani nation considers inexorable to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their motherland by deterring the belligerent designs of its potential enemies. Our adversaries have been overtly and covertly trying to undermine Pakistan's existence as a sovereign state since its independence on August 14, 1947. Pakistan, in fact, was compelled to embark upon highly ambitious and challenging programme of acquiring nuclear weapons in response to the role played by India in the creation of Bangladesh after bisecting Pakistan into two halves, and after demonstrating its regional and global ambitions by carrying out nuclear tests; 'Smiling Buddha', in 1974.

Despite financial constraints, Pakistan decided to fast-track efforts to acquire nuclear weapons after the nuclear tests conducted by India in 1974. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto tasked the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Dr Munir Ahmad Khan to develop a nuclear device by the end of 1976. Since PAEC, which consisted of over twenty laboratories and projects, was falling behind the schedule and having considerable difficulty producing fissile material, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan (A Q Khan), a metallurgist having the experience of working on centrifuge enrichment in Urenco, Netherlands, joined the programme by the end of 1974. As pointed out by Houston Wood, 'The most difficult step in building a nuclear weapon is the production of fissile material'; Dr A Q Khan played a pivotal role in producing fissile material as the head of the Kahuta Research Laboratories (renamed as Khan Research Laboratories in 1984 by late General Zia Ul Haq) to develop the capability for detonating a nuclear bomb by the end of 1984. He pushed for the feasibility of highly enriched uranium (HEU) fissile material. Under his supervision, KRL succeeded in obtaining the necessary material technology and electronic components for developing uranium enrichment capabilities for the boosted fission weapon designs that were eventually used in the Chagai-I tests in 1998.

Though Pakistan had fully acquired the capability for detonating a...