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National Command Authority

In April 1999 the Chief of Army Staff, General Pervez Musharraf, said the central command system to use nuclear and missile technology would be ready within one month. He said four broad components of the system are: i) the creation of a national command authority, ii) developmental control by a governing body, iii) strategic force command and iv) secretariat for all these three commands.

However, in point of fact this new military command and control structure was not implemented at that time. The unwillingness of the civilian leadership to take the military leadership into confidence on nuclear weapons control matters is said to have figured in the October 1999 military coup by General Musharraf.

Following the overthrow of the civilian government, on 02 February 2000 the National Security Council approved the establishment of the National Command Authority (NCA) to control policy on nuclear weapons. the National Command Authority is responsible for policy formulation and will exercise employment and development control over all strategic nuclear forces and strategic organizations. It consists of an Employment Control Committee and a Development Control Committee, as well as the Strategic Plans Division which acts as its Secretariat.

Sources and Resources



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Maintained by Robert Sherman

Updated Sunday, March 19, 2000 2:19:41 PM