India on Thursday reacted very sharply to reports of the US mulling a nuclear deal with Pakistan on the lines of India-US pact,saying anyone considering a nuke pact should first see Islamabad’s proliferation track record.”We have seen these reports and it is not for the first time this issue has surfaced. Whosoever is examining that particular dossier should be well aware of Pakistan’s track record in the area of proliferation. And when India got this particular deal it was on the basis of our own impeccable non-proliferation track record. As part of the US’s push to promote regional stability, it is urging Pakistan to implement “brackets” on its nuclear programme, which would entail limiting the scope of its nuclear armament appropriate to its actual defence needs against India by limiting the focus and range of its missiles. In return for controlling Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, the US might support a waiver for Pakistan by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which currently does not partake in nuclear trade with countries that have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. If this waiver is applied, Pakistan can, like India, bring its civilian nuclear programme under the safeguards and standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Thus, in return for curbing aggression, Pakistan’s energy sector and non-military nuclear programme will receive a massive boost. Both of these eventualities are in Pakistan’s favour and dealing with NSG is the need of the hour, so in that respect this proposed deal should be, in an ideal world, hard to resist.
However, Pakistan’s unassailable paranoia about Indian intentions might prove yet again to be an effective roadblock to the approval of any such deal. Couched in benign terms, the much vaunted “full spectrum deterrence capability” is the new jewel in the foreign policy crown that could prove anathema to regional peace. The Foreign Office, responding to the article, insisted that Pakistan was a responsible nuclear state and its nuclear programme is strictly defensive in nature, justifying the reportedly high rate at it which Pakistan is increasing its nuclear arsenal as a measure to counter the ‘conventional asymmetry’ that is tilted in favour of India and its superior numbers. So Pakistan is developing short range ‘tactical nuclear weapons’, which once again sound benign enough but actually lower the threshold for deployment of nuclear weapons as they can be conceivably used to thwart a conventional onslaught. The consequences and response of such a deployment are too horrific to imagine. However, the argument for Pakistani restraint gets weakened in the face of Indian aggression, as posturing has become a habit of Modi’s government.
pk.shafaqna.com
