Pakistan's political crisis has raised a number of troubling questions - could the state collapse, could militants come to power, could the country's nuclear arms fall into the wrong hands?

Anxiety about the weapons has been particularly intense in the US.

Pakistan tested a nuclear-capable missile on Friday
One opinion article in the New York Times talked about the need to explore military options to secure the weapons.

The subject is even up for debate in the US presidential campaign, where Hillary Clinton said she would try to get Pakistan to share the responsibility for the weapons with a delegation from the US.

But is there a real threat or is it simply a case of media hype and scaremongering?

For Retired Brigadier General Naeem Salik, who worked in the National Command Authority, the heart of Pakistan's nuclear establishment, it is a case of distrust rather than real danger.

"It appears people are very reluctant still to accept Pakistan as a nuclear power," he argues.

Post 9/11 fears

But others say it is the history of Pakistan's nuclear programme that has created much of the concern.

After 9/11, the US became fixated on the idea of terrorists getting their hands on nuclear weapons.

If a couple of weapons or even just one were stolen out of Pakistan's inventory by extremists we might even not know about it until it's too late

Bruce Riedel, US Pakistan expert
That fear was heightened when it was revealed that two former members of the Pakistani nuclear establishment had travelled to Afghanistan to meet Osama Bin Laden.