Pakistan’s nuclear odyssey was a direct consequence of India crossing the nuclear Rubicon. Its nuclear programme was a defensive response to a security paranoia, spawned by India’s role in the dismemberment of the country in 1971.
India’s testing of a nuclear device in 1974 was the last straw. Against a clear and present danger to the nation, Pakistan was already mulling over options to address its perpetual conventional force asymmetry with India, when the Indians – in pursuit of their grandiloquent geo-strategic objectives – conducted a nuclear test in 1974.
