Islamabad: Father of Pakistan`s nuclear programme, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, has claimed that Islamabad has the ability to 'target' Indian capital New Delhi in just five minutes.


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The Express Tribune quoted Khan as saying that Pakistan has the ability to target New Delhi from Kahuta near Rawalpindi in five minutes.


Addressing an event organised in Islamabad to celebrate the 18th anniversary of Pakistan's first nuclear tests carried out under his supervision in 1998, Khan said that Pakistan could have become a nuclear power in 1984 if then president General Ziaul Haq hadn't "opposed the move".


"We were able and we had a plan to launch nuclear test in 1984. But President General Ziaul Haq had opposed the move," Khan said.


According to Khan, General Zia believed that nuclear testing would not only result in the world intervening militarily, but also affect international aid that Pakistan was receiving due to the ongoing Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.