In February 2000, the National Security Council (NSC) of Pakistan ratified the establishment of National Command Authority (NCA) to frame and control the national policy on nuclear issues.
NCA is chaired by the Prime Minister and comprises apex governmental and military officious as its members. Strategic Plans Division (SPD) is the secretariat of the NCA, which is responsible for the protection of strategic and fissile assets of Pakistan.
Previously known as Combat Development Directorate (CDD), SPD has developed an indigenous, multi-layered, and institutionalized Command and Control structure to safeguard the country’s missile and nuclear arsenal.
Headed by three-star General, DG SPD prevails a dominating authority in Pakistan armed forces and exercises significant role in the research, development, production, and manufacturing of Pakistan’s ballistic and cruise missile program.
Other agencies such as National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM), Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), and National Development Complex (NDC) are administrated by SPD.
In 1998, an inexperienced Lt. General (then Brigadier) Kidwai was part of Post-Chagi think tank that was tasked for securing and indoctrinating the Pakistan’s nuclear assets. Four years later, he was elevated to head one of the exalted organizations, SPD.
Lt. General Khalid Kidwai has been the keystone of Pakistan’s missile and nuclear arsenal. Appointed in 2000 as Director General of SPD, he continued to head the organization for unprecedented 14 years.
Probably the longest serving official in history, Gen. Kidwai is one of the most garlanded Generals in Pakistan, who seen off three army chiefs, three presidents, and four prime ministers during his extraordinary career.
A winner of Sword of Honor at Pakistan’s military academy, he is also a 1971 war veteran and prisoner of WAR (POW). He has been conferred the top civil and prestigious military awards by the government of Pakistan.
As DG, Gen. Kidwai commanded a small army at SPD (SPD Force) and ran an unnamed intelligence and counter-intelligence network (different from ISI) as well as ‘conceived, articulated, and executed Pakistan’s nuclear policy and deterrence doctrine into a tangible and nuclear force structure’.
General Kudwai is also the pioneer of civilian Nuclear Energy Program (NEC) and National Space Program (NSP) of Pakistan.
The security branch of SPD has so far produced thousands of rigorously trained and skilled commandos that have graduated in counter-terrorism and handling and dismantling of nuclear armaments to protect the country’s nukes and the activities of its subordinate strategic organizations.
Due to extreme secrecy of its operations, the position at the helm of the Chaklala Garrison’s Strategic Plans Division has been much more consequential to the outsiders, that any other political and military personality in Pakistan. But for all practical reasons, SPD is very much part of Pakistan army.
While talking to David Sanger, Gen. Kidwai said: ‘Please grant to Pakistan that if we can make nuclear weapons and the delivery systems, we can also make them safe. Our security systems are foolproof’.
Gen. Kidwai, when pressed by Americans about the nuclear safety, said that the Americans Shouldn’t offer lectures about nuclear security – not after the US Air Force lost track of some of its own weapons in 2007 for 36 hours.
In 2008, a Bush administration’s official told the Times ‘Every morning, I could see what was happening inside the Soviet nuclear system. I have never had a morning when I could (get) inside Pakistan’s’.
Michael Krepon describes the critical role of General Kidwai:
‘Every nation’s nuclear weapon-related programs have elevated a few individuals into a position of extraordinary authority. Some have remained in the shadows, a few have become national embarrassments, and others have gained public renown. ‘
‘The ‘father’ of US nuclear navy, Admiral Hyman Rickover, had such a high profile and was deemed to be so essential by his supporters on Capitol Hill that his retirement from active duty was postponed until the ripe old age of 81. Pakistan’s closest approximation to Admiral Rickover is…Kidwai.’
In February 2008, Ashley Tellis, Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South Asia:
‘It is my judgment that Pakistan strategic assets – to include its nuclear devices , its delivery systems, and its stockpile of fissile materials – are fundamentally safe today … Compared to the situation in 1980s and early 1990s, when Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was still relatively vulnerable to a variety of external and internal threats.’
Although Gen. Kidwai was formally retired in 2007 yet he resumed the office through December 2013, getting incredible 12 extensions. He finally passed the baton after General Raheel Sharif appointed Lt. Gen. Zubair Mahmood Hayyat (now General, Chairman JCSC) as new DG to institutionalize the SPD.
Lt. General Sarfraz Sattar is the current Director General of Strategic Plans Division. He has also served as DG Military Intelligence and military attaché to India. Gen. Sattar is one of the top three contenders for DG ISI as well as would be strong contestant for the posts of chief of army staff and chairman joint chiefs of staff committee after the existing Generals retire in 2019.