Yum e Takbeer: A Rejoinder to Pakistan’s Enemy

Dr.Syed Mehboob

Senior Research Editor

The News Lark, political and economic analyst

Peace can not be maintained without deterrence. The world has some power-hungry countries that do not bother to care about International laws. Pakistan always gave top priority to its sovereignty, independence, and integrity. It has a neighbor that is larger than six times its territory and population. It has a defence budget nine times more than Pakistan. Soon after Independence, India occupied Kashmir, which is a Muslim majority area, and according to the partition formula, it has to be joined with Pakistan. It was also the wish of its great majority people. Instead of accepting Kashmiri people’s wish and respecting their opinion, India took every step to crush them, and since then continued the policy of Genocide of Kashmiri people. In May 1974, India exploded a nuclear test close to the Pakistan border and threatening Pakistan’s security.

It was time for Pakistan to have a comprehensive deterrence plan to maintain its sovereignty and independence. The Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto contacted Dr. Abdul Qadir. Dr. Abdul Qadir, who wrote a letter in August 1974 to Mr. Bhutto, was asked to see Prime Minister Bhutto personally. Dr. Abdul Qadir arrived in Pakistan in December 1974, and directly met with PM Bhutto, where Ghulam Ishaq Khan was also present. Dr. Khan also met with Munir Ahmed and other senior scientists. He went back to Holland and returned in April 1976, and joined the Nuclear Program.  Dr. Khan joined Engineering Research Laboratories ( ERL), which was functioning directly under the Army’s Corps of Engineers, with Khan being its first Chief Scientist. Army engineers located the National site at Kahuta for the enrichment program as an ideal site for preventing accidents.

In 1983,President Muhammad Zia ul Haq visited the Research laboratory and it was renamed a “Dr Qadir Khan Research Laboratory”. In retaliation and rejoinder to India’s nuclear test in 1974 and 1998 again, on 28 May 1998, Pakistan exploded five atomic devices in Chaghi, Baluchistan. At least one was evidently made from enriched uranium, but the Chaghi II test in the Kharan desert used plutonium produced by Khan Lab. Since then, Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan is considered “The Hero of Pakistan” and “ The Father of the Nuclear Programme of Pakistan”.

In May 2023, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Khalid Kidwai—an advisor to Pakistan’s National Command Authority, which oversees nuclear weapons development, doctrine, and employment—gave a speech at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) where he offered his description of what “full spectrum deterrence” entails. According to Kidwai (2023), “full spectrum deterrence” implies the following:

• “That Pakistan possesses the full spectrum of nuclear weapons in three categories: strategic, operational, and tactical, with full range coverage of the large Indian land mass and its outlying territories; there is no place for India’s strategic weapons to hide.
• That Pakistan possesses an entire range of weapons yield coverage in terms of kilotons (KT), and the numbers are strongly secured, to deter the adversary’s declared policy of massive retaliation; Pakistan’s “counter-massive retaliation” can therefore be as severe if not more.
• That Pakistan retains the liberty of choosing from a full spectrum of targets in a “target-rich India,” notwithstanding the indigenous Indian BMD or the Russian S-400, to include counter-value, counter-force, and battlefield targets.”

According to Kidwai, who previously served as the director-general of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), the “full spectrum” aspect of Pakistan’s deterrence posture encompasses both “horizontal” and “vertical” elements. The horizontal aspect refers to Pakistan’s nuclear “triad” encompassing the Army Strategic Force Command (ASFC), the Naval Strategic Force Command (NSFC), and the Air Force Strategic Command (AFSC). The vertical aspect refers to three tiers of destructive yield—“strategic, operational, and tactical”—as well as a range coverage “from zero meters to 2750 kilometers,” allowing Pakistan to target the entirety of India.

Kidwai and former Pakistani officials have explained that this posture, as well as Pakistan’s particular emphasis on non-strategic nuclear weapons, is specifically intended as a response to a perceived India’s “cold start” doctrine  The “cold start” doctrine is an alleged intention by India to launch large-scale conventional strikes or incursions into Pakistani territory without triggering Pakistani nuclear retaliation. Pakistan has reacted to this perceived doctrine by adding several short-range, lower-yield nuclear-capable weapon systems specifically designed to counter military threats below the strategic level.

 As of the beginning of 2023, the International Panel on Fissile Materials estimated that Pakistan had an inventory of approximately 4,900 kilograms (plus or minus 1,500 kilograms) of weapon-grade (90 percent enriched) highly enriched uranium (HEU), and about 500 kilograms (plus or minus 170 kilograms) of weapon-grade plutonium. Assuming each first-generation implosion-type warhead’s solid core uses 15 to 18 kilograms (kg) of weapon-grade HEU or 5 to 6 kg of plutonium, this fissile material would theoretically be enough to produce a maximum of approximately 188 to 436 HEU-based single-stage warheads and 55 to 134 plutonium-based single-stage warheads if fully expended. .

Pakistan India Nuclear Capability A Comparison

Yum-e-Takbeer is the day to pledge that we all Pakistanis will defend our motherland till the last drop of our blood and are united under the green flag of Pakistan. We pay rich tribute to all those who contributed in any way in their capacities to build the nuclear programme of Pakistan. Dr. Abdul Qadir and his valued team, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, the Wife of Dr Abdul Qadir, who sacrificed a lot, Zia ul Haq, and all others. SALUTE FOR THEM.