Countries of Proliferation Concern - Pakistan

Pakistan has pursued various NBC weapons and missile programs. In 1998 it became the world's seventh nuclear power. Pakistan officially developed its nuclear weapons program in response to a perceived threat from India. It received significant scientific and technical assistance from China and North Korea. As part of an aid package involving

FIGURE 4.5

some $3 billion over five years, Pakistan agreed in 2003 to cease nuclear proliferation and assist the United States in its war on terrorism. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist who was instrumental in making Pakistan a nuclear power, was revealed in early 2004 to have been selling nuclear equipment and expertise to Iran and Libya. His black market operations extended worldwide and made him a wealthy man. Authorities in Pakistan declined to imprison Khan, who is considered a national hero, but he will be under virtual house arrest for the remainder of his life. Pakistan has a small number of ballistic missiles capable of reaching India, most of which are said to be reverse-engineered—copied from a functional device by breaking it down to its components—from Chinese and North Korean missiles. Among the short-range missiles in Pakistan's arsenal are the solid-fuel Hatf-2 and Hatf-3 and the Shaheen-1. Figure 4.7 shows the ranges for Pakistan's ballistic missiles.

Pakistan signed the CWC in 1993 and ratified it in 1997, but there is little information, if any, on declared chemical weapons agents. While its biotechnology infrastructure is not as developed as that of India, Pakistan has well-established laboratories capable of carrying out biological weapons research. It signed the BTWC in April 1972 and ratified it in 1974.