Pakistan ’s nuclear program which has been built indigenously without
acquiring foreign assistance has come under constant assault. Hardly a
day passes when some weird and cockeyed story is not published in
western print media or a statement not made by senior US officials.
Purpose of the malicious campaign is to smear and bring into disrepute
Pakistan by deliberately spreading disinformation campaign about the
security of our nuclear assets. The theme revolves around weak safety
and apprehensions are expressed that nuclear weapons could be stolen by
the extremists. Doubts are created that some compromises have been or
being made.
A scandalous report was published in US media alleging that Pakistan had
already agreed to hand over its enriched uranium to the US . A rumor is
in circulation that when Zardari went to USA with a begging bowl,
so-called Friends of Pakistan Forum (FPF) was created and an offer of
$100 billion was made in return for our nuclear program. Shirin Mazari
has referred to her conversation with Seymour Hersh (The News dated 20
May). He informed her that compromises by our political leadership on
nuclear program had already been made. This rumor was given air when
Zardari announced that Pakistan will put an end to further manufacturing
of nuclear weapons and assured India that Pakistan will not exercise the
option of ‘first strike’. Drastic reduction in budget for SPD, which
seriously impacted our nuclear and missile R&D programs and curtailed
missile tests, has given grist to the rumor mill.
One of the motives of onslaught against our nuclear programme is to
compel Pakistan to seek foreign assistance for its safety, thus allowing
interested groups to intrude into prohibited areas and ascertain missing
links they are desperately looking for. French offer is an attempt in
that direction. US effort to find a berth in NCA for its official as an
observer failed. The US supplied security vehicles for safe carriage of
weapons, but these are not in use. Drumming up Taliban threat that they
were on the verge of capturing Islamabad and nuclear weapons was part of
the design to make the leadership panicky and compel it to shift stored
weapons to alternative safer locations. This exercise if undertaken
would allow the spy satellites of USA as well as the Indo-Israeli
satellite to photograph new sites for eventual destruction through
surgical strikes.
CIA Director has stated that the US doesn’t know about the location of
all Pakistani nukes. The day CIA learns of 60-100 nuclear warheads, game
for Pakistan will be up. It is this uncanny fear of untraced weapons
that is keeping USA and India backed by Israel in check since even a
single unaccounted weapon could prove costly. The US well knows that
Pakistan has excellent command and control system and possibility of
theft is impossible. The detractors are not worried about safety of our
nuclear weapons; what cause them anxiety are the untraced locations of
weapons, now quietly shifted to new underground sites. Concerted efforts
are underway to trace out whereabouts of weapons so that the prepared
plans to hijack them in one go can be mounted by US Special Forces.
Obama has said that he could consider all options to secure nuclear
weapons if the country gets less stable. France ’s special envoy to
Pakistan painted a grim picture in early May of Pakistan collapsing
under pressure from Islamists who could one day seize control of its
nuclear weapons. He talked of rampant Talibanisation of areas close to
Islamabad . It was probably this fear that Sarkozy offered cooperation
to make our nuclear program safe which Zardari and his team misconstrued
it as cooperation in civilian nuclear technology.
It is now being alleged that Pakistan is expanding its nuclear program
and reference has been made towards a plant being built near DG Khan for
commercial purposes to generate energy. Detractors fear that Pakistan
may make use of plutonium deposits found in DG Khan and follow the
plutonium path for development of tactical nuclear weapons and thus
offset advantage gained by India . The News dated 25 May published an
account of Brig retired Imtiaz. He disclosed that strenuous efforts were
made by CIA from 1978 onwards to disable our nuclear program in its
crib. By stroke of luck he found out about a gang of Pakistani
scientists and engineers working in Kahuta and other nuclear plants
working on the payroll of CIA to sabotage our nuclear sites. They were
caught and sentenced and their foreign handlers deported. It indicates
the frenzy of USA to denuclearize Pakistan through covert means at a
time when Islamabad used to repeatedly assert that its nuclear program
was not nuclear tipped but meant for peaceful purposes only. It has not
given up and is still working with full zeal to achieve its mission. If
the CIA had succeeded in cultivating so many well-paid and pampered
scientists in 1978, what is the guarantee that it has not made a
breakthrough now particularly after it was allowed unlimited freedom of
action to operate in Pakistan after 2001 and still no restrictions have
been imposed on it. Another disclosure has been made by Advisor to PM
that Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry has certain elements
bought over by USA who are bent upon scuttling Iran-Pakistan gas
pipeline project.
It was a pleasant change to see Foreign Office spokesman shedding away
usual apologetic stance and giving a measured and terse reply to
one-sided barrage of propaganda. Barbed questions were well answered. He
scoffed at the sponsored themes against Pakistan terming it a failing
and a fragile state and that its nuclear weapons would fall in wrong
hands. Instead of indulging in unproductive lengthy explanations about
Pakistan ’s nuclear program which is an eyesore for USA , India and
Israel , he astutely said that it was not possible for Pakistan to
remain unaware of increasing conventional asymmetries and unrelenting
arms acquisition by India . He also pointed out preferential treatment
accorded to certain countries (Indo-US nexus), which disturbed regional
military equilibrium and forced Pakistan to adopt necessary safeguards
as it deemed fit. He rounded up his resume by reminding India to resolve
longstanding Kashmir issue and to abide by the provisions of 1960 Indus
Water Treaty.
CJSC Gen Tariq Majid delivered a hard hitting riposte to dispel
misperceptions spread by vested groups about security of nuclear
weapons. He made it clear that no foreign individual, entity or state
had been provided or shall ever be provided access to our sensitive
information and insinuations in this regard are mischievous and should
be contemptuously dismissed. He assured that security apparatus put in
place prepares and practices contingencies to meet all such
eventualities.. His assurance that strategic assets are jealously
guarded and any attempt to undermine our core capability will be
strongly resisted and defeated is comforting and has acted as a tonic
for the Pakistanis.
Our leaders have all along adopted an apologetic stance and a policy of
appeasement to allay their fears. No amount of our explanations has
brought any change despite the fact that SPD has developed and
operationalised a very effective nuclear weapons security regime which
is multilayer, has stringent access controls, foolproof custodial
controls and failsafe security arrangements. It is high time that we put
an end to giving defensive explanations. Their hackneyed and nauseating
mantras should be pooh-poohed. We should just say that apprehensions are
misconceived, frivolous and absurd warranting no further comments.
The ones worried about Pakistan nuclear program should worry about their
own nukes which are vulnerable to domestic threat and a far greater
hazard for world peace and security. This has now been amply verified
from recent bungling in US nuclear safety system and kidnapping of a
senior Indian scientist along with sensitive documents and his murder
and Indian record of nuclear proliferation to Iran , Iraq and Libya .
—The writer is a defence, political analyst and author of several books.
