During the 1990s, Pakistan prepared for possible testing. Project officials selected the Ras Koh Hills in the southwestern Baluchistan province as a test site. Engineers drilled test shafts deep into the ground in preparation. Pakistan also vastly improved its missile technology, developing the Ghauri medium-range ballistic missile, a derivate of the North Korean Nodong.
Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif faced enormous pressure to authorize nuclear tests after India conducted its own tests in May 1998. “We in Pakistan will maintain a balance with India in all fields,” said Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan, a proponent of testing. “We are in a headlong arms race on the subcontinent.” International leaders, however, called on Sharif not to respond to the Indian tests. The United States even offered a repeal of the Pressler Amendment and additional military aid should Pakistan refrain from testing.
n the end, however, Pakistani officials went ahead with preparations for the test—codenamed Chagai-I—when Sharif gave the order “Dhamaka kar dein” (conduct the explosion). A military escort flew the bomb parts to Ras Koh, where they were assembled and placed in the test shafts along with diagnostic cables. On May 28, 1998—less than three weeks after India’s nuclear tests—Pakistan exploded its first devices at the Ras Koh test site. “Today, we have settled a score and have carried out five successful nuclear tests,” announced Sharif. With a total yield of 9 kilotons, however, there is some debate about how many bombs were actually tested (Reed and Stillman 257). Two days later, Pakistan conducted an additional test, Chagai-II.
Pakistan Today
Ghauri missiles on display in Karachi, 2008. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/SyedNaqui90Unlike India, Pakistan does not have a no first use doctrine regarding its nuclear arsenal. In the aftermath of the 1998 tests, Prime Minister Sharif affirmed that the Pakistani bomb was “in the interest of national self-defense…to deter aggression, whether nuclear or conventional.” In 2002, President Pervez Musharraf declared that Pakistan would “respond with full might” if attacked. After 9/11, the United States grew very concerned that political instability and religious radicalism in Pakistan could give non-state actors such as the Taliban access to nuclear materials. With help from the West, the Pakistani government took steps to improve its nuclear security, although concerns remain today. The civilian National Command Authority (NCA) maintains command and control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. As of 2016, the Nuclear Threat Initiative estimates the Pakistani arsenal at 100-120 warheads, but with materials for more than 200.
Source:ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/
