Does the U.S. Still Control Pakistan's Nuclear Arsenal?

 

Was it always a tool to pressure India and China since the Cold War?

✍ Ashok Kumar Jha, Editor – Ranchi Dastak & PSA Live News

A bankrupt state like Pakistan, which can’t even afford to buy modern fighter jets, is somehow believed to possess and manage nuclear weapons. But does it really? Or is this just a façade — a deterrence myth maintained by global superpowers, primarily the United States?

Today, this question resurfaces with greater urgency after a brief but targeted conflict erupted between India and Pakistan — followed by an abrupt ceasefire mediated by none other than the U.S. president himself.

Strategic observers argue that Pakistan’s nuclear program was never entirely under Islamabad’s control. Since before 1998, the nuclear arsenal has been nurtured under the shadow of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and China — not as a sovereign defense mechanism, but as a regional pressure tool against India and to maintain geopolitical leverage in South and Central Asia.

America’s Invisible Hand Behind Pakistan’s Nuclear Bluff

Let’s be blunt — a nation that relies on foreign aid even for basic infrastructure and can’t maintain its own F-16 fleet without U.S. intervention — is hardly capable of securing, maintaining, or deploying nuclear warheads independently.

So the real question is — Is the nuclear trigger in Islamabad… or Washington, D.C.?

Pakistan’s own scientific capabilities, political instability, and dependency on foreign military technology make it clear that its nuclear assets have always been guarded — and possibly even activated — only with U.S. approval.

Precision Strikes and the Shadow of a Bigger Explosion

Last week, India launched pinpoint missile strikes on multiple Pakistani military installations, reportedly damaging airbases, radar sites, and logistics centers.

Interestingly, some of these sites may have included U.S.-assisted or jointly maintained assets. The U.S. response was equally revealing:

In the morning, America claimed the war was “a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.”

By evening, however, President Trump personally announced a ceasefire, and both countries accepted it within hours. Why the sudden urgency?

Because India may have struck a sensitive nuclear-related installation, triggering potential radioactive risks — and more critically, threatening to expose America’s covert military infrastructure in Pakistan, built since the Cold War and expanded during the War on Terror.

PM Modi’s Silence: Strategic or Symbolic?

Throughout the operation and subsequent ceasefire, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to remain silent. This wasn’t indecision — it was strategy.

By delegating communications to subordinates and refusing to address Pakistan directly, Modi downplayed Islamabad’s significance while simultaneously projecting India as a responsible global power respecting international equilibrium.

This “silent diplomacy” amplified India’s moral and military high ground, contrasting with Pakistan’s panicked narrative and begging for third-party mediation.

Trump’s Panic and the Real Fear of a Nuclear Disaster

When President Trump warned that “25 to 30 million people could die in this war,” he wasn’t just making a political statement. He was, perhaps inadvertently, acknowledging the looming risk of a nuclear detonation at a damaged site — which could affect multiple countries, including U.S. allies.

If India indeed hit or nearly hit a nuclear stockpile that was built, stored, or maintained with American knowledge, then Washington was not just a bystander — it was an invested party trying to avoid global embarrassment and regional fallout.

What’s Next? PoK, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Strategic Realignments

India has shown that it is willing to cross red lines when its security and sovereignty are challenged. If today’s diplomatic talks lead to concrete initiatives on PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan, it will be a logical next step in a broader strategy that neutralizes Pakistan while compelling global powers to recognize India's rise as a decisive actor in regional politics.

Even the U.S. now seems to acknowledge that the balance of power in Asia is shifting, and India is no longer a regional power but a global stakeholder.

A Silent Deterrent or a Strategic Gambit?

If Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal has always been under U.S. control, and if India has now demonstrated its readiness to strike at even the most “untouchable” sites, then this is not just a military development — it’s a paradigm shift in strategic doctrine.

Pakistan has become a pawn. The real geopolitical chessboard is now India vs. China vs. the U.S.
And in this game, India has just made its most audacious move yet.