Rabia Akhtar
Pakistan has always been criticised on nuclear proliferation. President Asif Ali Zardari spoke on the prospects of a “non-nuclear treaty” in South Asia. India proposed an “international convention for complete prohibition of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. President Obama, in his speech in Prague on April 5 vowed a renewed commitment to nuclear disarmament. There are those, who are applauding global initiatives and forgetting Pakistan’s contribution to initiatives on non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament in South Asia.
Pakistan’s efforts in the field of peaceful civilian nuclear energy started with the creation of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in 1956. In 1957 it supported Ireland’s proposal for the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The proposal was adopted by UN General Assembly in 1965. Following the creation of the IAEA in 1957, Pakistan voluntarily submitted its civilian nuclear facilities for international inspections in 1959. After having proposed the idea of a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in South Asia in 1972, Pakistan floated a formal proposal for the establishment of the zone in 1974 after India conducted its first nuclear test. During the decade of 1960s leading up to the Indian PNE of 1974, Pakistan had been warning the international community of Indian diversion of nuclear fuel from the Canadian-supplied civilian nuclear reactor to India.
The Pakistani proposal, presented in the General Assembly in 1974, resulted in Resolution 3265, which endorsed the creation of the Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in South Asia.
Pakistan has always pursued the idea of nuclear non-proliferation aggressively at the international and regional levels because it understood that solutions to its security dilemma could only be found in a region where India abandoned its ambitions of nuclear hegemony. Therefore, the goal of nuclear disarmament, which was global, and a regime of nuclear non-proliferation, which was universal, had little appeal for Pakistan as a state which was threatened by its immediate neighbour.
At the 11th anniversary of nuclearisation in South Asia, when India proudly recalls Rajiv Gandhi’s Plan of Action for “a world free of nuclear weapons”–at the heart of which was the commitment to eliminate all nuclear weapons in three stages by 2010 (as proposed by Rajiv Gandhi in 1988)–Pakistan would only want India to commit to a Strategic Restraint Regime in South Asia, to a Nuclear Risk Reduction Measures in South Asia, and to its commitment to letter and spirit and not through hedged “first strike” options as enshrined in its doctrine. It should also commit to “minimum” deterrence posture and to upholding its moratorium on nuclear testing. At the same time, it should commit to a ballistic missile defence free zone in South Asia. It is not a story of the past 11 years of nuclearisation, but of our entire history, which has been full of wars, conflicts, crises and misperceptions. India’s continuous refusal to accept Pakistan-led proposals and initiatives on non-proliferation, arms-control and disarmament at various international and regional forums has been sufficient to create the atmosphere of distrust between the two states. The international community should ask India to move away from its rhetorical position on disarmament and genuinely pursue Pakistan’s proposal on a strategic restraint regime for long-lasting strategic stability in South Asia.
The writer heads the department of defence and diplomatic studies at Fatima Jinnah Women’s University, Rawalpindi. Email: rabiakhter@gmail.com
