Opinion | Who Controls Pakistan’s Nuclear Arsenal?

Opinion | Who Controls Pakistan’s Nuclear Arsenal?

Former CIA operative and whistleblower John Kiriakou isn't new to controversy and his recent disclosure regarding Pakistan's nuclear command and control structure is the latest bombshell. He claims that in 2002 while in Pakistan, he was told that the Pentagon controlled Pakistan's nuclear assets and these were placed under an American General by the Government of Pakistan. Though Islamabad has publicly been denying the existence of any such arrangement, Kiriakou nevertheless stands by the same.

The live possibility of Pakistani nuclear weapons/material getting into the hands of terrorist groups has been a perennial cause of concern for Washington.

Accordingly, even though Kiriakou's claim may sound outlandish, considering the criticality of this issue, the likelihood of the Pentagon having worked out a system of checks and balances to prevent this from happening cannot be ruled out.

This claim, whether fully accurate or not, raises several serious issues:

Pakistan presents itself as a sovereign nuclear-armed state with full control over its strategic arsenal. Handing over nuclear control to a foreign power would severely damage its credibility domestically and internationally. It also raises the question: if Pakistan has given up direct control, how effective is its deterrent posture?

Pakistan and its neighbour India have long been locked in a standoff and if Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is under external control, it could well embolden India or shift its calculations. Consequently, it may alter deterrence dynamics, escalation thresholds, and crisis stability in South Asia.

Pakistan is often described as being politically unstable, having military-dominated governance, weak civilian institutions, a history of coups, and intersections between the military/intelligence services and extremist groups. Given these internal vulnerabilities, the control and safety of nuclear assets in Pakistan has always been a global concern.

The claim that a foreign power might control them reinforces these existing fears.

Pakistan is, in many ways, what one might call a “rough country" — not in a pejorative sense alone, but in the sense of enduring instability, institutional fragility, and unpredictable domestic-foreign linkages:

In that environment, if the claim by Kiriakou is even partially accurate, it signals how deeply external powers may have felt they had to intervene to ensure stability of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. That's not just a reflection on U.S. strategy, but on Pakistan's own inability (or unwillingness) to provide assured control under exclusively national hands.

It underscores a harsh reality: a nuclear-armed state whose internal governance and institutional oversight may not stand up to full international confidence. For Pakistan, the badge of “military-nuclear power" comes with a heavy burden — more so than for many others — because its internal conditions make control and credibility more fragile.

While the claim is significant, we must approach it with caution:

If we accept Kiriakou's claim as plausible, then the picture it paints is deeply troubling: a nuclear‐armed state that lacks full internal control is so unstable that it must outsource or permit external command of its most destructive capabilities. That kind of scenario is precisely what many fear when they label Pakistan as a risk in the nuclear age.

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For Pakistan to be an effective, credible nuclear power, it must not just possess warheads — it must convincingly control them. In a “rough country" setting like Pakistan, this is easier said than done. Kiriakou's assertion reminds us of that gap: possession ≠ control. And for global stability, especially in a region as volatile as South Asia, this gap is what truly matters.

The author is Editor, Brighter Kashmir, author, TV commentator, political analyst and columnist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.

Source: News18
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