Is Pakistan Bringing Nuclear Blackmail Back to the Table? Rising Concerns as Islamabad Faces Deepening Crisis

As tensions escalate in South Asia and Pakistan grapples with one of the worst economic crises in its history, analysts are increasingly questioning whether Islamabad is once again attempting to leverage nuclear blackmail—a tactic historically used to extract diplomatic concessions from major powers, especially the United States.

The concerns are not unfounded. Pakistan’s nuclear programme has always carried an air of secrecy, internal contradiction, and strategic ambiguity. Former President Pervez Musharraf, in his memoir In the Line of Fire, openly admitted the deep-rooted opacity embedded within Pakistan’s nuclear establishment. He conceded that the country’s most celebrated nuclear scientist, Dr A Q Khan, was not simply involved in irregular activities—“A Q was not ‘part of the problem’ but the ‘problem’ itself.” Musharraf acknowledged that successive political leaders intentionally maintained ambiguity about nuclear capabilities, warning that the “frightening possibilities” stemmed from a system so opaque that “the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was up to.”

These revelations later aligned with the infamous A Q Khan proliferation scandal, which exposed how nuclear technology had been trafficked across borders in a clandestine network that stunned the global security community.

But the roots of Pakistan’s nuclear posture run deeper. As early as 1965, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared Pakistan would pursue the bomb at any cost: “We will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own.” Today, Pakistan is facing an economic scenario that dangerously resembles Bhutto’s warning—its reserves depleted, debt soaring, and its government heavily dependent on international aid to survive.

In this fragile environment, a startling development recently made headlines. Reports emerged claiming that secret negotiations were underway involving the Israeli Mossad, the American CIA, and Pakistan’s powerful military establishment in Egypt, allegedly discussing the possibility of deploying 20,000 Pakistani troops to Gaza for a post-war stabilisation mission. Though Pakistan’s Information Ministry has swiftly dismissed the claim, the very existence of such reports hints at the volatile geopolitical undercurrents Islamabad is navigating.

Critics fear that the United States may have unwittingly provided Pakistan too much strategic leeway, and that nuclear blackmail—subtle or overt—could re-emerge as a bargaining chip in future negotiations, particularly as US-India trade talks progress and Washington’s regional priorities shift.

Pakistan’s internal desperation, combined with its historically fluid nuclear doctrine, creates a troubling backdrop for global security. With state institutions under strain, economic collapse looming, and geopolitical manoeuvres intensifying, analysts warn that the world cannot afford to underestimate Islamabad’s capacity for brinkmanship.

Whether or not Pakistan intends to revive nuclear coercion as a diplomatic tool, its past trajectory and current vulnerabilities point toward a dangerous possibility—one that could complicate regional stability and global negotiations long after today’s crises subside.