Alarmist’s ploy to cap Pakistan nuclear assets

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Alarmist’s ploy to cap Pakistan nuclear assets

By Khalid Khokhar
Friday, February 18, 2011

In the backdrop of US Embassy cables released by WikiLeaks contains American diplomats’ apprehensions that al-Qaeda was planning a programme of “dirty radioactive Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), the recent startling revelations published by ‘The Washington Post” that Pakistan was rapidly expanding its nuclear arms stockpile, clearly shows that alarmists are working out a comprehensive strategy to cap Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Washington Post reports Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal now totals over 100 deployed weapons, a doubling of its stockpile over the past several years, edging ahead of India that is hovering around 60-100 weapons.

Nonetheless, the disclosures are unfounded and based on conjectures and personal idiosyncrasies without any objectivity. Pakistan is believed to maintain tight control over its nuclear assets, and it has instituted special steps to deal with the current situation. Pakistan depends on this secrecy to increase the survivability of its nuclear weapons. The nuclear programme has been kept so secret that even the US knows very little about how this material is stored and what security measures are applied to its protection.

Pakistan has a responsibility to ensure that its assets are adequately protected and to convince other countries that this responsibility is taken seriously. America is aware of the fact, that Pakistan security forces and intelligence agencies are true custodian of national integrity, nuclear assets and boundaries of Pakistan. The public declarations of both Pakistani and American leadership show that all this propaganda of Pakistan’s nuclear assets falling into wrong hands has no relevance at all.

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. 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, 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. While Pakistan has produced more nuclear-armed weapons, India is believed to have larger existing stockpiles of such fissile material for future weapons. An escalation of the arms race in South Asia poses a dilemma for the Obama administration, which has worked to improve its economic, political and defence ties with India while seeking to deepen its relationship with Pakistan as a crucial component of its Afghanistan war strategy.

According to nuclear analysts, for India to launch Cold Start, would be to “roll the nuclear dice”. It could trigger the world’s first use of nuclear weapons. This alarming scenario point Pakistan in the direction of a larger 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.

Therefore, the articles published by The Washington Post and the New York Times regarding the apparent growth in the Pakistani nuclear arsenal, needs to be condemned by the sane segment of society in Pakistan.


Alarmist