Nukes for peace
By Khalid Iqbal | Published: June 29, 2009
Since its initiation, Pakistan's nuclear programme has continually attracted undue international scrutiny (read stigmatisation). Negative tags like 'Islamic bomb' and 'dirty bomb' etc were purposefully coined, and mischievously associated with Pakistan's nuclear programme. Objective was to malign an otherwise modest and well-intentioned programme. To place the matter in correct perspective, our pursuits in this domain were purely reactive. Pakistan was indeed pushed against the wall to evolve and execute its nuclear programme after India's overt nuclearisation, back in 1974. Likewise, India's explosions in 1998, and ensuing cowboy style antagonising attitude, forced Pakistan to go for an overt demonstration of its matching capability. Hence, by default, Pakistan became an overt nuclear weapon state in 1998. Ever since, a sinister campaign in on to discredit our capability regarding security and safety of nukes.
To meet our compelling security compulsions, Pakistani nation demonstrated remarkable tenacity, resilience and wonderful consensus in the context of nuclear programme. Indian military capability, even sans nukes, has all along been posing a formidable threat for Pakistan. Three wars, dismemberment of the country, occupation of Siachin glacier, foot dragging on Kashmir and other vital issues, recurring violations of Indus Basin Water Treaty and the like, indicate that India wants to carry on with its incremental ambitions. Unfortunately, she has the requisite military capability, especially in the conventional domain, to pose survival dilemma for Pakistan.
India's psyche of rushing in the troops to borders, in aggressive configurations, on one pretext or the other, is a confirmatory indicator in this regard. On some of such occasions, it was really a close call. Furthermore, coining of 'Cold Start War Doctrine' for speedy achievement of strategic gains shows the desperate mindset of Indian military hierarchy.
Although Taliban threat has temporarily stolen the thunder out of the real threat, once this transient trouble is over, the regional equation is likely to be back to square one. It is in this anticipation that a potent lobby with corporate interest to keep Pakistan under perpetual pressure regarding its nuclear programme is working overtime. During the recent years, Dr A Q Khan's issue was blown out of proportion while nuclear material related safety and security issues of other nuclear weapons capable nations are routinely and conveniently swept under the carpet.
Now it is the fantasy like fear of falling of these weapons in the hands of Taliban, which is being drummed up to create an unwarranted frenzy. Pakistan's nuclear assets' security and safety is being questioned in a non-professional way, mostly by pseudo experts. They sound more like lobbyists for the vested interests that be. This carefully structured and intricately timed orchestration seems to be a well thought out strategy to keep Pakistan under strain in anticipation to forthcoming international conference on nuclear disarmament, tentatively planned for next year. The objective could be to rope in Pakistan into some kind of discriminatory non-proliferation regimes.
Another plausible reason for creating the hype is to torpedo Pakistan's efforts for gaining access to civilian usage of nuclear know-how, especially in the power generation domain. These days Pakistan is earnestly pursuing strategic arrangements with friendly countries on the pattern of US-India nuclear agreement. It is in the better interest of world community that Pakistan be given institutionalised access to the usage of nuclear technology in the field of non-weapon domains. Under such an umbrella concurrence, multinational parameters shall be defined and specific IAEA safeguards would become binding upon Pakistan. Therefore, international community should facilitate Pakistan in entering into an accountability mechanism in the field of power generation as well as other non-military applications.
From historic perspective, Pakistan has always been an ardent supporter of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, but on the basis of equity. We have been proposing arrangements for keeping our region free of nuclear weapons; however our genuine security compulsions have forced us to develop nuclear weapons. Even then, Pakistan has not entered into an arms race and we have worked out our weapons requirement in line with the minimum credible deterrence calculus. Furthermore, we have all along been pursuing a programme of capacity building for making our nukes safer to store and operate.
Pakistan essentially needs nuclear weapons because our region is nuclearised and we need to counter balance India's overwhelming predominance in the conventional regime. Therefore, before considering any denuclearisation proposal, Pakistan must have a requisite balancing parity in the conventional domain to pose credible deterrence and to thwart an aggression, should the deterrence collapse. Hence, any arms reduction proposition in Pak-India context has to be a composite nuclear-conventional package. Otherwise, simple denuclearisation of India and Pakistan could unleash conventional wars for settling the lingering disputes, as the side having numerical advantage in conventional regime (always India!) shall be tempted to employ coercive strategy and even go to war for a favourable solution of simmering conflicts.
It is an interesting phenomenon that through a process of doctrinal evolution, conventional and nuclear doctrines have intricately enmeshed in a way that it is no longer possible to discern them individually. These have, indeed, become an elusive continuum. Practically, due to recently emerged nuclear weapon states, their respective regions have lost the option of going into even a limited conventional conflict, without the fear of escalating into a nuclear shoot out. Unlike the superpowers' nuclear dynamics of yesteryears, that resulted in an ever-spiralling arms race, in the regional settings, nuclear weapons have become a source of stability. There have not been hysterical nuclear arms races in the nuclearised regions of the world.
Pakistan has a national consensus with regard to the necessity of its nuclear assets and the requirement of a flawless physical security and operational safety of these possessions. A well acknowledged robust command and control arrangement and a nuclear materials' regulatory mechanism are already in place to ensure safety and security of these weapons.
Pakistan is a responsible state and has a foolproof system of physical and operational security of nuclear assets. Elements with corporate interest to discredit this capability of Pakistan need to think rationally and talk logically. Sporadic rhetoric aside, Taliban neither have the capacity nor the capability to lay their hands on nukes, what to talk of operating these. Such a venture (read misadventure) is beyond the faculty of these loud mouths.
These nukes underwrite the assurance of regional peace and stability in South Asia, a noble cause indeed!
The writer is a former air commodore
E-mail: [email protected]
Nukes for peace | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
By Khalid Iqbal | Published: June 29, 2009
Since its initiation, Pakistan's nuclear programme has continually attracted undue international scrutiny (read stigmatisation). Negative tags like 'Islamic bomb' and 'dirty bomb' etc were purposefully coined, and mischievously associated with Pakistan's nuclear programme. Objective was to malign an otherwise modest and well-intentioned programme. To place the matter in correct perspective, our pursuits in this domain were purely reactive. Pakistan was indeed pushed against the wall to evolve and execute its nuclear programme after India's overt nuclearisation, back in 1974. Likewise, India's explosions in 1998, and ensuing cowboy style antagonising attitude, forced Pakistan to go for an overt demonstration of its matching capability. Hence, by default, Pakistan became an overt nuclear weapon state in 1998. Ever since, a sinister campaign in on to discredit our capability regarding security and safety of nukes.
To meet our compelling security compulsions, Pakistani nation demonstrated remarkable tenacity, resilience and wonderful consensus in the context of nuclear programme. Indian military capability, even sans nukes, has all along been posing a formidable threat for Pakistan. Three wars, dismemberment of the country, occupation of Siachin glacier, foot dragging on Kashmir and other vital issues, recurring violations of Indus Basin Water Treaty and the like, indicate that India wants to carry on with its incremental ambitions. Unfortunately, she has the requisite military capability, especially in the conventional domain, to pose survival dilemma for Pakistan.
India's psyche of rushing in the troops to borders, in aggressive configurations, on one pretext or the other, is a confirmatory indicator in this regard. On some of such occasions, it was really a close call. Furthermore, coining of 'Cold Start War Doctrine' for speedy achievement of strategic gains shows the desperate mindset of Indian military hierarchy.
Although Taliban threat has temporarily stolen the thunder out of the real threat, once this transient trouble is over, the regional equation is likely to be back to square one. It is in this anticipation that a potent lobby with corporate interest to keep Pakistan under perpetual pressure regarding its nuclear programme is working overtime. During the recent years, Dr A Q Khan's issue was blown out of proportion while nuclear material related safety and security issues of other nuclear weapons capable nations are routinely and conveniently swept under the carpet.
Now it is the fantasy like fear of falling of these weapons in the hands of Taliban, which is being drummed up to create an unwarranted frenzy. Pakistan's nuclear assets' security and safety is being questioned in a non-professional way, mostly by pseudo experts. They sound more like lobbyists for the vested interests that be. This carefully structured and intricately timed orchestration seems to be a well thought out strategy to keep Pakistan under strain in anticipation to forthcoming international conference on nuclear disarmament, tentatively planned for next year. The objective could be to rope in Pakistan into some kind of discriminatory non-proliferation regimes.
Another plausible reason for creating the hype is to torpedo Pakistan's efforts for gaining access to civilian usage of nuclear know-how, especially in the power generation domain. These days Pakistan is earnestly pursuing strategic arrangements with friendly countries on the pattern of US-India nuclear agreement. It is in the better interest of world community that Pakistan be given institutionalised access to the usage of nuclear technology in the field of non-weapon domains. Under such an umbrella concurrence, multinational parameters shall be defined and specific IAEA safeguards would become binding upon Pakistan. Therefore, international community should facilitate Pakistan in entering into an accountability mechanism in the field of power generation as well as other non-military applications.
From historic perspective, Pakistan has always been an ardent supporter of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, but on the basis of equity. We have been proposing arrangements for keeping our region free of nuclear weapons; however our genuine security compulsions have forced us to develop nuclear weapons. Even then, Pakistan has not entered into an arms race and we have worked out our weapons requirement in line with the minimum credible deterrence calculus. Furthermore, we have all along been pursuing a programme of capacity building for making our nukes safer to store and operate.
Pakistan essentially needs nuclear weapons because our region is nuclearised and we need to counter balance India's overwhelming predominance in the conventional regime. Therefore, before considering any denuclearisation proposal, Pakistan must have a requisite balancing parity in the conventional domain to pose credible deterrence and to thwart an aggression, should the deterrence collapse. Hence, any arms reduction proposition in Pak-India context has to be a composite nuclear-conventional package. Otherwise, simple denuclearisation of India and Pakistan could unleash conventional wars for settling the lingering disputes, as the side having numerical advantage in conventional regime (always India!) shall be tempted to employ coercive strategy and even go to war for a favourable solution of simmering conflicts.
It is an interesting phenomenon that through a process of doctrinal evolution, conventional and nuclear doctrines have intricately enmeshed in a way that it is no longer possible to discern them individually. These have, indeed, become an elusive continuum. Practically, due to recently emerged nuclear weapon states, their respective regions have lost the option of going into even a limited conventional conflict, without the fear of escalating into a nuclear shoot out. Unlike the superpowers' nuclear dynamics of yesteryears, that resulted in an ever-spiralling arms race, in the regional settings, nuclear weapons have become a source of stability. There have not been hysterical nuclear arms races in the nuclearised regions of the world.
Pakistan has a national consensus with regard to the necessity of its nuclear assets and the requirement of a flawless physical security and operational safety of these possessions. A well acknowledged robust command and control arrangement and a nuclear materials' regulatory mechanism are already in place to ensure safety and security of these weapons.
Pakistan is a responsible state and has a foolproof system of physical and operational security of nuclear assets. Elements with corporate interest to discredit this capability of Pakistan need to think rationally and talk logically. Sporadic rhetoric aside, Taliban neither have the capacity nor the capability to lay their hands on nukes, what to talk of operating these. Such a venture (read misadventure) is beyond the faculty of these loud mouths.
These nukes underwrite the assurance of regional peace and stability in South Asia, a noble cause indeed!
The writer is a former air commodore
E-mail: [email protected]
Nukes for peace | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online