Pakistan-Saudi Defence Deal: Pretext to Proliferate Tech related to Islamic Bomb?

The Mutual Defence Agreement signed by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia a few days back, under which the two countries have pledged to consider an attack on one nation as an attack on both, has triggered questions in India regarding its real and hidden objectives.

India, faced with never-ending hostility from Pakistan, will definitely study the implications of the Pakistan-Saudi agreement in its pursuit to protect the national interests as it has promised to do so.

But for India, the comforting aspect is that its relations with Saudi Arabia have improved substantially in the recent past and it is highly unlikely that Riyadh will join, or even help Pakistan, in case of an armed conflict between the two South Asian neighbours.

Saudi Arabia, under the present regime, is, in any case, not like Turkey which remains every ready to jump in to help Pakistan, under the pretext of ‘Islamic brotherhood’ and its ambitions to become the leader of the Muslim nations.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia has a lot of business interests in India, which is one of the largest importers of its petroleum products. So, it is highly unlikely that Saudi Arabia would be a part of any future armed conflict between Pakistan and India.

However, there is a much bigger aspect of concern in the Pakistan-Saudi agreement regarding which the entire world should be alarmed, i.e., proliferation of nuclear weapons by Pakistan.

Pakistan, after developing the atom bomb and testing it in May 1998, has been portraying it as the “Islamic Bomb”, implying that this catastrophe-causing arsenal is available for use of any Muslim country against a non- Muslim nation.

Similar indications have emerged from Pakistan after it signed the deal on September 17, 2025, with its Defence Minister Khawaja Asif saying his country’s nuclear capabilities could be extended to Saudi Arabia under the pact.

“Let me make one point clear about Pakistan’s nuclear capability -- that capability was established long ago when we conducted tests…. What we have, our capabilities, will absolutely be available under this pact” Asif told Geo News.

In return, of course, Pakistan will demand huge amounts of money, which it badly needs considering the distressed economic condition of the country.

Today, it is Saudi Arabia, with which Pakistan is willing to share the nuclear technology.

Tomorrow, it may be some other Islamic country, with which Pakistan could formalize such an arrangement. And thus, it may go on and on.

Pakistan already has a history of proliferating the deadly nuclear technology and items and thus is a major violator of international rules and laws.

In the past, Pakistan has indulged in nuclear proliferation by helping Iran, North Korea and Libya in developing the atom bomb. The operation was led by late Dr A.Q.Khan, considered Pakistan’s ‘Father of Nuclear Programme’.

However, that was done clandestinely, whereas the Agreement with Saudi Arabia is used by Pakistan to lend some kind of legitimacy or legal status to the proliferation now.

It must be noted that Pakistan is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its atomic programme is illegal under international law.

Pakistan launched its nuclear weapons programme in 1970s, after India carried out the first atomic tests on May 18, 1974, codenamed ‘Smiling Buddha’.

While India declared that its nuclear programme was meant for peaceful uses like generation of electricity, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto announced that his country too will develop its atomic programme.

He said Pakistan would develop an “Islamic Bomb”, even if the countrymen had to “eat grass” or “go hungry”.

His argument was: “(There is) a Christian bomb, a Jewish bomb and now a Hindu bomb, so, why not an Islamic bomb?”

At that time, Khan was working as a sub-contractor with a major nuclear fuel company – Urenco -- in Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

Khan used that work to steal blueprints of the centrifuges, used for enriching Uranium and turning it into a bomb fuel. In January 1976, he left The Netherlands in mysterious way and returned home.

Later on, it dawned upon the authorities in The Netherlands that he had stolen the critical blueprint of the bomb.

But by then, he had started work on setting up a research laboratory in Rawalpindi for enriching uranium for nuclear weapons.

The programme was shrouded in secrecy but there was suspicion about it in India and some other countries.

In April 1979, US President Jimmy Carter cut aid to Pakistan after having enough information related to the nuclear programme underway.

However, after Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979, the US reversed its decision to cut aid to Pakistan as it needed the country’s help in countering USSR in the neighbourhood.

The US, thereafter, continued to ignore Pakistan’s dangerous activities even as Khan started proliferating nuclear technology and items.

But Israel was alert, knowing that it was the prime target of the ‘Islamic Bomb’, and had even planned air attacks in 1980s to destroy Pakistan’s atomic facilities.

For that operation, Israel needed air bases in India, permission for which was not given. Much later, the then chief of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad was quoted as saying that had he realized Khan’s ill intentions, he would have ordered his assassination to “change the course of history”. Between 1986 and 2001, Iran received key components related to the nuclear bomb from Pakistan.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi also exposed Khan’s clandestine actives. Gaddafi revealed to the CIA and MI6 that Khan was building nuclear facilities for his government. Some of these facilities were given the camouflage of,Chicken Farms.

After revelations by Gaddafi, the CIA launched an operation and seized machinery which was being smuggled to Libya through the Suez Canal. The CIA sleuths also found blueprints of the nuclear weapons in bags from a dry cleaner in Islamabad.

In 2004, Khan confessed, in a televised appearance, that he had been running the nuclear proliferation network and had helped Iran, North Korea and Libya with atomic technology.

While there were calls internationally for action against him, the then military ruler of Pakistan Gen Pervez Musharraf termed him as his “hero”.

However, as the US mounted pressure on Musharraf to take action against Khan over his dangerous activities, he placed him under ‘house arrest’ in Islamabad till 2009, which was actually a sham exercise.

So, considering the dirty track record of Pakistan, the world should wake up and realize that if it is not contained now, it may disseminate the deadly nuclear technology to many more countries, including the rogue ones.

(Ajay Kaul, a veteran journalist, is former Editor-in-Chief of UNI)