India and Pakistan are both countries that have nuclear weapons, primarily to threaten each other with. These states have a poor relationship with each other and it is alarming that they both pocess nuclear weapons. There have already been three wars between these two countries and the dispute over Kashmir means that the possibility of a further war remains strong.

Arguably instead of increasing stability in the region it has made the consequences of any further conflicts between these two countries potentially disastrous for us all and not just for the innocent people that would be killed.

The importance of the army in Pakistan can be traced back to the country's foundation in 1947 after the British partition of the Indian Raj. Mohammed Ali Jinnah who had founded the Muslim League to establish an Islamic state separate from the Hindu dominated Indian State largely inspired Pakistan. The idea of Pakistan only dated back to the early 1930's. With the partition the new Pakistani army gained some highly competent and experienced army officers from the British led Indian army including Zia ul-Haq and Ayrub Khan, both future presidents. The actual partition caused much violence and bloodshed at the time but also ensured future conflict between Pakistan and India as the partition cut along provinces in a haphazard fashion most notably in Kashmir.

Pakistan was divided into Western and eastern parts. Although East Pakistan would later become Bangladesh. Pakistan was politically unstable almost from the start especially when the inspirational Mohammed Ali Jinnah died in 1948 and the Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated three years later.

The army had been defeated in two wars with India in 1965 and 1971 but still regarded itself as the unifying force within Pakistan with the right to intervene in politics whenever it felt the necessity to do so. India's superiority in conventional arms and its much larger population explain why Pakistan was keen to have nuclear weapons, especially after India developed such weapons first.

A problem that has beset all of Pakistan's governments civilian and military was the establishment of a national identity. It was not a problem of the army's making; it was a direct result of the partition. Pakistan inherited far less of the British Raj than India did. Pakistan was largely rural and 90% of the Raj's industry had remained in India, which also had 82% of the population and 77% of its territory. Added

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