When pakistan became a nuclear weapon state?

On May 28, 1998, Pakistan became a nuclear power when it successfully carried out five nuclear tests at Chaghai, in the province of Baluchistan. This was in direct response to five nuclear explosions by India, just two weeks earlier.

Widely criticized by the international community, Pakistan maintains that its nuclear program is for selfdefence, as deterrence against nuclear India. A former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, offered justification for Pakistan's nuclear program when he said that if India were to produce a bomb, Pakistan would do anything it could to get one of its own. It has always been maintained by Pakistan that a nuclear threat posed to its security can neither be met with conventional means of defense, nor by external security guarantees.