Country Profile: Pakistan
BASIC FACTS
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, located in southeast Asia, bordered by India, Iran, Afghanistan, and China, is the world's fifth-most populous country with a population exceeding 212.2 million. Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic that gained its independence in 1947. Repeated conflicts with its neighbor, India, over the Kashmir region have devolved into large-scale, conventional wars in 1947, 1965, and 1971. The nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan, neither of whom is a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, is a major issue within the international nonproliferation regime.
Capital: Islamabad
Pakistan has two nuclear research reactors (PARR-1 and PARR-2) as well as five PWR nuclear power plants (CHASNUPP-1, CHASNUPP-2, CHASNUPP-3, CHASNUPP-4, and KANUPP-1). Pakistan is currently constructing two additional power plants (KANUPP-2 and KANUPP-3) with China’s help, to be completed in 2022.
Pakistan first tested nuclear weapons in May 1998, shortly after India’s first test. Islamabad has declared that Pakistan will only sign the NPT if it can be recognized as a nuclear-weapons State, as its weapons have been publicly declared. Pakistan has signed an item-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA, although as a non-signatory to the NPT it has never signed the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement. Pakistan has also repeatedly refused to sign the CTBT, even if India were to do so.
In 2004, one of the key engineers in the Pakistani nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was accused of proliferating nuclear technology to other countries including Libya, Iran, and North Korea.
Although Pakistan cooperates with the United States on various export control and nuclear security improvement programs, it has been unable to arrange a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the West. As a result, Pakistan has increasingly turned to China for nuclear cooperation: China supplied Pakistan’s CHASNUPP-1 and CHASNUPP-2 reactors in the early 2000s, and in 2015 agreed to construct several additional, new generation power reactors.
TREATIES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
- Member of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1957
- Joined Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1979
- Succeeded to 1925 Geneva Protocol in 1960
- Acceded to Antarctic Treaty in 2012
- Signed Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1972
- Ratified in 1974
- Signed Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993
- Ratified in 1997
- Signed Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in 1982
- Ratified in 1985
- Acceded to Convention on Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) in 1986
- Acceded to Moon Treaty (Celestial Bodies) in 1986
- Signed Outer Space Treaty in 1967
- Ratified in 1968
- Signed Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) in 1963
- Ratified in 1988
- Acceded to Convention for the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials (CPPNM) in 2000
REGIONAL GROUPS
- Member of the G-77
- Member of the Asia-Pacific Group
- Member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
- Member of the Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition
- Member of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism
RECENT REPRESENTATION IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
- Held Chairmanship of G-77 in 2007
- Mr. Ansar Parvez, Governor from Pakistan, held the IAEA Board Chair in 2010-2011
- IAEA Board of Governors for 2019-2020
LINKS
Ratification of Treaties & Membership in International Organizations Related to Disarmament
Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs