CIA’s secret documents related to this question, recently declassified, indicate that Pakistan had acquired nuclear capability between 1986-87. One of the major tasks of Jonathan Pollard was to collect information about Pakistan’s nuclear programme and plutonium reprocessing facility near Islamabad. He was quoted as saying in March 1987, without mincing words that Pakistan had a nuclear bomb. Having conveyed to India of Pakistan’s nuclear capability, on March 29, 1987, while acknowledging Gen. Akhtar’s role in the protection of Pakistan nuclear programme as well as his role in the covert war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Zia elevated him to the position of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee ( CJCSC ), the highest-rank in the Pakistan Armed Forces at that time. After the takeover in 1977, Gen. Zia had placed Pakistan’s nuclear programme under military control, disbanding the previous civilian directorate, and thereafter since June,1979, when Gen. Akhtar got appointed as ISI chief, he was a key figure in the protection of Pakistan’s nuclear assets.