Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Programme and its Implications

Pakistan’s long-running nuclear weapons programme evidently began to make striking progress in spring 1987. Statements by both international experts and Pakistani leaders, President Zia ul-Haq, and Dr. A. Q. Khan, the Director of the uranium-enrichment facility at Kahuta, served to confirm this, although some Pakistani officials have later attempted to reinterpret these statements.1 Pakistan’s nuclear programme has a long history. It started in 1955 on a modest scale but was accelerated between 1958 and 1977 when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in different capacities acted as its chief promotor. He sent hundreds of young scientists to Europe and North America for training in Nuclear Sciences2 and ordered from Canada a 125 MWe heavy water/natural uranium power plant called KANUPP, which started operation in 1972. He also concluded with France in 1976 an agreement on a nuclear reprocessing plant to be constructed at Chasma, an agreement which France terminated in 1978. Pakistan has, however, continued its construction and it is now said to be close to starting operations.3