ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical background of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, the rationale for building nuclear weapons, and its post-tests nuclear posture. It suggests that Pakistan confronts in building and maintaining the deterrent, and the possible directions of the Pakistani strategic weapons programme in the short to medium term. The nuclear tests, the Government announced that Pakistan would pursue a 'minimum deterrence' posture and adopted a 'quantitative' force-building approach to its deterrent. The nuclear issue became a part of domestic political dynamics in the 1960s, courtesy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto played a pivotal role in integrating the nuclear issue into the domestic political process. It seems the size of the Pakistani arsenal has not dramatically increased since 2005, and at the end of 2009 various authoritative sources put the Pakistani nuclear force at 70 to 90 nuclear warheads. The deployment and alert status of Pakistan is not clearly known.
