A responsible nuclear state
Posted on March 24, 2011
by
By KHALID KHOKHAR
The latest cache of US Embassy cables released by WikiLeaks contains American diplomats’ fears that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program could lead to fissile material falling into the hands of terrorists or a devastating nuclear exchange with India.
Marroit Leslie, a senior British Foreign Office official, told US diplomats at London Arms Control meeting in September 2009 that UK has deep concerns about the safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. All sorts of rumor-mongering have been tried to establish that Pakistan poses a serious threat of proliferating nuclear weapons to the terrorists. The influence of rumormongers on the Western media is quite visible. In fact, Obama’s conscious effort to revive relations with Muslim community is being undone by these anti-Pakistan lobbies.
According to the mysterious “US contingency plan,” as highlighted by the Western media, the US is prepared to act quickly in the event of an emergency involving Pakistan’s nuclear assets. Several observers have suggested that if Pakistan government becomes hostile to the US, the American military will take the nuclear weapons out of Pakistan without the permission of the Pakistani authorities. Extensive bombing will be carried out at several nuclear sites, (including the relatively large Khushab reactor and New Labs reprocessing Plant) so as to bring the roof down on the reactor core. In order to minimize the likelihood of such a catastrophic US contingency plan, the Americans thought, a better strategy would be to provide assistance to improve security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals. More rationally, the Pakistan government is unlikely to welcome US assistance that could reveal its nuclear weapons storage sites and provide access to Pakistan’s nuclear weapon sites.
According to a US cable to Washington, Pakistan Army is worried that the US “will drop in and take their nukes.”
Likewise India also maintains a “military contingency plan.” The intangible plan is codenamed “Cold Start.” According to the plan, India would mount a rapid invasion of Pakistan if sufficiently provoked. According to nuclear analysts, there is visible doubt that Indian Army is capable of doing so — because of confronting very mixed results.
The US warned that for India to launch Cold Start would be to “roll the nuclear dice.” It could trigger the world’s first use of nuclear weapons since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Indian leaders no doubt are cognizant of this hard fact, although Cold Start is designed to punish Pakistan in a limited manner without triggering a nuclear response, they cannot be sure whether Pakistan’s leaders will in fact refrain from such a response.
In the backdrop of Mumbai terror attacks-2008, India’s threats of carrying out surgical operation inside Pakistan if action is not taken against the perpetrators, clearly shows that India wants to assert itself as a superpower capable of conducting an unchecked foray into foreign domain. This alarming scenario points Pakistan in the direction of large nuclear force that requires a greater amount of fissile material. While analyzing the nuclear threat, it was generally agreed in the London meeting-2009, that India and Pakistan view each other as enemies.
Nuclear weapons are crucial to Pakistan, because Pakistani military is no match for the Indian Army. Therefore, Pakistan is justified to work on producing smaller tactical nuclear weapons that can provide deterrence against Indian nuclear might.
Nonetheless, Americans media purposefully turn a blind eye to Indian’s activities in relation to nuke program. There are 152 theft cases of uranium which were reported and registered with Indian police since 1984. More so, the alarming episodes of (a.) US-based companies’ involvement in sensitive electronic spares smuggling to India (b.) murder of nuke staff and (c.) disappearance of uranium loaded Indian ship, have created furor in the regional countries. The US-India civilian nuclear deal initiated in 2005, invited resistance.
The “Report on Progress toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan” said that deployment of over 130,000 Pakistani troops in tribal region to counter terrorism has provided a space to Indian Army to concentrate its forces on Pakistani borders. As Pakistan is facing threat of conventional war from the eastern borders, therefore, it cannot scale down the strength of the troops deployed on the eastern borders alongside India.
At one point Indian troops deployed along Pakistani border reached four hundred thousand. This level of armor and mechanized forces near Pakistani border made Pakistan “alert.”
The Pakistan military controls the nuclear weapons, and has instituted a range of measures to tighten controls over the nuclear weapons complex. According to the Western analysts, the program has been kept so secret that event the US knows very little about how this material is stored, what security measures are applied to its protection, how personnel with access to nuclear weapons and materials are screened and where the material is located.
There appears to be a general consensus that all nuclear weapons are under strict control, or under “ironclad” control. There is a no question of (Pakistan’s nuclear assets) falling into the hands of any fundamentalists.
Pakistan is believed to maintain tight control over its nuclear assets and it has instituted special steps to deal with the current situation. The Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani very rightly believes in the capabilities of Pakistani Army in safeguarding its nuclear assets.
