Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

1 Frontline Pakistan
the country’s military vulnerability transformed Pakistan’s nuclear
programme, which had hitherto focused on civilian energy production,
into one with a substantial military component. Bhutto seized the
opportunity presented by India’s nuclear test in 1974 to press ahead
with his own nuclear weapons programme. Security concerns were
the primary but not the sole factor in Pakistan’s decision to develop
the atom bomb. Bhutto’s vision of ‘an Islamic bomb’ also fuelled
Islamabad’s ambition. ‘We know that Israel and South Africa have full
nuclear capability. The Christian, Jewish and Hindu civilizations have
this capability. The Islamic civilization was without it, but that situation
was about to change,’ Bhutto wrote from his death row prison cell
in 1978, a few months before his execution. 10 The Pakistani leader
believed that nuclear capability would secure his country a leading
role in the Islamic world.
In September 1974, Dr Khan wrote a letter to Bhutto offering his
services to the government. His experience at the Almelo plant was
very valuable to the country’s nascent nuclear programme. Bhutto
accepted his offer and invited him to join PAEC. ‘Beg, borrow or steal.
We must make a nuclear device to counter the threat posed by India.
Money should be no problem,’ Bhutto told him.
Dr Khan stayed back at Almelo for more than a year, smuggling
out the centrifuge designs and other classified documents. In January
1976, he suddenly left Europe with his family before his espionage was
detected. In March, he sent his letter of resignation from Pakistan to
his employer in Holland. Dr Khan initially worked at a small centrifuge
pilot project run by the PAEC at Sihala near Islamabad. Bhutto later
separated the uranium enrichment project from the PAEC and made
Dr Khan its head. In July 1976, Dr Khan founded the Engineering
Research Laboratories – later renamed Khan Research Laboratories
– outside Kahuta, not far from Islamabad. 11 The project, which was
placed under direct military control, ultimately led to Pakistan’s first
nuclear test explosion in May 1998. The procurement of the secret
centrifuge design from URENCO by Dr Khan was critical to Pakistan’s
successful nuclearization. He was charged with stealing trade secrets
and sentenced, in absentia, to a four-year prison term by a court in the
Netherlands in 1983. The sentence was later quashed on appeal.
Pakistan largely concentrated on the uranium enrichment path to
nuclear weapons. As early as 1975, Pakistan had begun to clandestinely
acquire hardware and technology for ultra-high-speed centrifuges.
Through smuggling and black-market channels, Islamabad obtained