Are Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Safe‪?‬

Byline: Malik Qasim Mustafa * To question the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal amounts in fact to doubting the very guarantee that assures the existence and survival of the country. However, before moving on to taking a closer look at the major theme of this study, there is a need to briefly identify the main motives for Pakistan to become the world's eighth nuclear-weapon State in May 1998. That would help us better understand the importance of nuclear weapons for the country. According to Kenneth Waltz, the following are some major motives for a State, in general, to develop nuclear weapons under a conventional explanatory model: