Pakistan desperate for nuclear deal with the US
India has done well to, in an understated manner, remind the world community of Pakistan's nuclear regime record before it entertained thoughts of entering into civil nuclear deals with Islamabad. The caution comes in the wake of a US-based newspaper report that the US was toying with the idea of having a civil nuclear pact with Pakistan on the lines of what it inked with India a few years ago. Since that historic agreement between New Delhi and Washington, DC, Pakistan has been desperately seeking a similar arrangement with the US and other countries of the West, not so much as to benefit from it but to seek parity with India on the global credibility scale. For Islamabad, it has become a matter of prestige: That it should be treated as a nuclear pariah while India has gained acceptance in the nuclear world, troubles it. The George W Bush Administration had summarily dismissed Pakistan's demand for parity with India on the issue. Nothing has changed since then. Pakistan's nuclear programme remains as veiled as before, and the devious manner in which it acquired nuclear weapons capability, is known to the world. Such had been the international outrage that the ‘father' of Pakistan's nuclear programme, AQ Khan, who had been exposed for his underhand dealings by none other than the US, had to quit in disgrace. In fact, Islamabad had to sack him from his high-profile position — though later, he was partially resurrected. As things stand, the nuclear programme is effectively under the Pakistan Army’s control, making the prospect of some trigger-happy General, playing with fire, a real and dangerous possibility.
The argument that will be offered in favour of a nuclear deal between the US and Pakistan is that the agreement will open up the Pakistani nuclear programme and place effective checks and balances, which otherwise are not possible presently. There had been checks and balances before, and yet Pakistan ended up smuggling in critical technology to build military-specific nuclear capabilities. India's record, by contrast, has been stellar. It acquired technology transparently and not through stealth. While it has conducted more than one nuclear test, and has developed related capabilities, it has remained a responsible nuclear power. In fact, the ‘no first use of nuclear weapons' against aggressors is New Delhi's long-standing policy, despite pressures from certain quarters to revise it, given Pakistan's repeated plans to challenge the sovereignty of the country. But Pakistani leaders, both civil and military, have missed no occasion to ‘remind' (warn, actually) India that theirs was a nuclear nation too. Such threats in themselves indicate the Pakistani gameplan. Islamabad has in the past misused US military aid to turn its guns on India in wars. Now, if the US seeks to legitimise Pakistan's deviously-acquired nuclear capability, it will embolden the latter to go full-steam ahead on the path of nuclear brinkmanship.