Pakistan came into existence as an independent country in 1947 when the British Indian Empire was partitioned between Hindus and Muslims. The United States brought its “U.S. Atoms for Peace initiatives to Pakistan in 1953 and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister said that Pakistan did not have a policy about atomic bombs. Part of the U.S. initiative was a nuclear reactor for Pakistan. Pakistan established the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1956.
From 1956 to 1971, Pakistan pursued the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Pakistan knew that India was working on nuclear weapons but felt that the existence of even a peaceful nuclear program in Pakistan was a serious deterrent.
Following the 1965 war between Pakistan and India which was largely fought in and over the disputed territory of Kashmir, Pakistan began to rethink its nuclear stance. Debate over the costs and complexities of a nuclear weapons program occupied the Pakistani government. In 1966 work began on a commercial Canadian reactor in Karachi. In 1969, Pakistan signed an agreement with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency for construction of a plant capable of producing weapons grade plutonium.
After the loss of Bangladesh and other territories in the war with India in 1971, Pakistan found itself without much international support and much less international influence and respect. The situation after the war and concern over the Indian nuclear program prompted Prime Minister Bhutto of Pakistan to convene a meeting of Pakistani scientists and engineers in 1972 to discuss the establishment of a Pakistani nuclear weapons program. Government agencies and projects were created to pursue nuclear research. The explosion of the first Indian bomb in 1974 accelerated the Pakistani program and triggered the launch of plutonium extraction and purification. Development was begun on the other components necessary to create a nuclear bomb. More physicists and engineers were recruited including Abdul Qadeer Khan who joined the Pakistani nuclear research program in 1976.
A.Q Khan is a metallurgical engineer who was trained in Germany. He held a high level position with URENCO at their facility in the Netherlands. URENCO is an international nuclear fuel company which operates several uranium enrichment plants in different countries. In 1983, Khan was convicted in abstentia in the Netherlands with stealing blueprints for uranium enrichment from URENCO. He operated an international network to acquire classified information on nuclear weapons development from other countries.
The Pakistani nuclear weapons program proceeded during the 1980s and 1990s. Five nuclear devices were detonated underground in 1998 in the Chagai district of Balochistan. The international community condemned the tests. India was also condemned from nuclear weapons development. Economic sanctions were imposed on Pakistan but the U.S. lifted its sanctions in 2000 when Pakistan agreed to help the U.S. in its “war on terror.” Pakistan currently has about one hundred nuclear warheads and missiles that have a range of over one thousand miles. The most likely opponent for a nuclear exchange with Pakistan is India. However, if either Pakistan or India bombed the other country, the winds in the area would spread the fallout back on the attacker. It has been estimated that a limited nuclear war of a few hundred warheads such as possessed by Pakistan and India could trigger a nuclear winter that would impact the entire human race.
Pakistani Missile:
