2. Who calls the shot in launching a nuclear weapon? Most likely the head of the government does. I mean are there special codes needed to initiate an attack or is it as simple as calling the relevant guy up and just saying "do it".
This is the question I was hoping for. I would prefer to answer it my self as I have had long discussion on this with him.
The
NCA or the
National Command Authority calls all the shots.
The President of Pakistan is the Chairman of NCA while Prime Minister is Vice-Chairman - with Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Vice Chief of Army Staff, (VCOAS), Foreign Minister, Interior Minister, Defence Minister & top level Scientists as other members.
However
its a collective organization &
no individual has complete hegemony on the NCA. So if Pakistan decides to "
Press the button" it would have to be NCA's decision, as in collective decision by its top members.
If majority tend to disagree with launching of nuclear weapons than they cannot be launched. If President wants to launch the attack but others tend to disagree than attack cant be carried out. So your assumption that head of the state - like the American President - has authority to launch a missile is wrong.
I would like to add something important here regarding the SECURITY of the Pakistan's nuclear arsenal --- NCA is responsible for both safety & security of the nuclear weapons. Many believe that the weapons can fall into wrong hands. The chances are very grim, almost 0%.
1. The wrong hands (extremists) cannot come to power in Pakistan because
a) Pakistan is not Afghanistan & has well disciplined & well armed army capable of tackling the 'wrong hands.' That is why the 'wrong hands' have been contained to a particular region only (although very threatening events do take place in rest of the country, there is no chance of them spreading beyond their own region).
b) Extremists cant come to power via democracy as the province they usually hail from has minor number of seats in the parliament. So even if they win 100% seats from that particular province they cannot form a govt. Since they cannot form a govt they cannot become President nor PM hence no chance of them becoming Chairman nor Vice-chairman of NCA.
* Even if lets suppose they come to power they cannot launch nuclear attack because they would require collective decision to do so from the members of NCA - who actually go through "
Personal Reliability Program" to see if they are mentally or emotionally challenged people. I.e.: If one comes up saying I want to destroy 'xyz' country than he is out, be it your No.1 enemy.
* Lets suppose they hijack a nuclear missile:
a) It would be of no use to them. Pakistani nuclear weapons are not launch at alarm ready like the American missiles - this means warhead is kept aside from the missiles.
b) They wouldn't know how to launch it on their own.
c) Third thing is safety of missile itself; as
Dr. Samar Mubarakmand [Ex-Chief of
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) &
NESCOM] said it '
even if you put the missile on the road & give people hammer to hit it nothing will happen' ... so the extremists/terrorists cant hijack a missile, take it to any country & start banging it so it could explode & destroy that country.
d) How will they hijack the missiles when they don't know their location of deployment? Plus the missiles & warheads are always under heavy security. I doubt anyone is willing to take such as risk to fight the security forces around the weapons.
As my teacher puts it .. the safety & security measures of NCA today are more robust & affective than the Americans'. In fact the Americans, IAEA & other organizations have been brief about NCA's working & they themselves have said it is more efficient, robust, affective &
strict than ours.
Hence all this talk about Pakistan's nuclear program falling to wrong hands is just a talk, especially by the American politicians aspiring to run for American Presidency.
