Pakistan Nuclear Milestones

Source: Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control


1955: Establishment of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).

1965: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto announces "If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry. But we will get one of our own."

1972: Z.A. Bhutto gathers Pakistan's top scientists at Multan, and orders them to build an atomic bomb.

1974: India tests a nuclear bomb.

1976: Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan becomes director of the Engineering Research Laboratories at Kahuta.

1984: Kahuta enrichment plant begins producing enriched uranium.

1985: Congress passes the Pressler Amendment conditioning U.S. aid on whether the U.S. can certify Pakistan does not possess a nuclear explosive device.

1988: India and Pakistan agree not to attack each other's nuclear facilities.

1989: Pakistan tests a short-range nuclear-capable missile.

1990: President Bush can no longer certify Pakistan has no nuclear weapons; United States suspends military aid to Pakistan.

1992: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shahryar Khan says Pakistan has the components and know-how to make at least one nuclear explosive "device."

1994: German officials announce the seizure of preforms for gas centrifuge scoops destined for Pakistan.

1995: On a visit to Washington, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says her country does not have nuclear weapons and lobbies for the delivery of American F-16 aircraft to Pakistan.

February 1996: British customs seize a shipment of Swedish laser measuring equipment intended for a Pakistani company known to be a front for Pakistan's nuclear weapon program.

February 1996: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reveals that China covertly sold 5,000 ring magnets to Pakistan's A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories.

September 1996: China secretly sells an industrial furnace and high-tech diagnostic equipment with military applications to "unsafeguarded nuclear facilities in Pakistan."

December 1996: Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announces that China will build a second nuclear power plant in Pakistan.

March 1997: According to former Pakistani Army Chief Mirza Aslam Beg, Pakistan has completed computer simulations of a nuclear weapon explosion.

May 1998: Pakistan conducts nuclear tests in the Chagai Hills. According to American scientists the first explosion measured 4.8 to 4.9 in magnitude, corresponding to a yield of 8 to 17 kilotons. The second blast, two days later, recorded a magnitude of only 4.3, corresponding to a yield of 1 kiloton, suggesting that the test was of a smaller device or that it failed. Dr. Khan claimed that Pakistan tested "a big bomb which has a yield of about 30-35 kilotons, and four small, tactical weapons of low yield." He also stated that uranium was used as the fissile material and none of the explosions were thermonuclear.

June 1998: Pakistan and India announce a moratorium on further nuclear weapons tests.

June 1998: The foreign ministers of the United States and seven other industrialized countries announce that they would act together to postpones loans to Pakistan by international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

January 1999: The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund renew lending to Pakistan after the U.S. drops its opposition to multilateral aid.

February 1999: According to Ishfaq Ahmed, Chairman of the PAEC, Pakistan is self-reliant in the production of heavy water, enriched uranium, zirconium and spare parts for its nuclear program.

May 1999: Saudi defense minister Prince Sultan visits Pakistan's secret nuclear facilities at Kahuta and a missile factory, raising Western concerns that Saudi Arabia may be interested in acquiring nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia denies any such intentions.

July 1999: British customs intercepts 20 tons of key components used in manufacturing nuclear weapons, including high-grade aluminum, destined for Pakistan.

August 1999: A Pakistani official claims that Pakistan can "build a nuclear weapon of any type or size, including [a] neutron bomb."

November 1999: PAEC announces it is developing a new uranium field in Tumman Leghari. Its uranium mining project at Baghalchar is being closed because "there are no more uranium reserves in the region," and not because of international pressure.

February 2000: The Chashma nuclear power plant comes on line.

May 2000: U.S. officials claim that Pakistan has made limited preparations for a potential future nuclear test; Pakistan denies the allegations.