NUCLEAR RACE IN SOUTH ASIA

It was on July 31, 1976 that Pakistan embarked upon a nuclear project during Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's regime.  The Pakistani nuclear project was in direct reaction to India's program.  (India exploded a nuclear device on May 18, 1974.)  After this Pakistan became desperate to acquire nuclear technology.  Prime Minister Bhutto believed in total wars. It is reported that he said, "all wars of our age have become total wars and it will have to be assumed that a war waged against Pakistan is capable of becoming a total war.  It would be dangerous to plan for less and our plan should, therefore, include the nuclear deterrent."

Bhutto strongly believed that India is not going to concede the nuclear monopoly to anybody.  If Pakistan did not respond in kind then there are chances that India would blackmail Pakistan.  He believed that before we reach such crisis level, we must acquire this technology.  After detonation of Indian nuclear device, Bhutto said, "If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, we go hungry.  But we will get one of our own .  We have no alternative."
Very soon he established the 'Engineering Research Laboratories,' and an autonomous organization with the goal to establish a Uranium Enrichment Plant and provide Pakistan with nuclear capability.  The location of this project was Kahuta, near Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.  This project is popularly known as Kahuta Project.  Within six years Pakistan became a country with the nuclear capabilities.  After Bhutto, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq continued the Bhutto's nuclear policies.

The Pakistani government contended that India's nuclear project was supported by Western countries as well as the former Soviet Union.  Indian nuclear policies violated the 'Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty' of 1970.  India's nuclear project was considered by the super powers as peaceful.  Pakistan believed that there is no such thing as a peaceful nuclear program.  India produced plutonium in a Canadian built reactor. The USA provided heavy water to the nuclear reactor. The American government started building pressure on Pakistan to quit the nuclear program. Under the US pressure French refused to supply nuclear reactor to Pakistan. Pakistani government realized that under the current diplomatic environment they could not realize their nuclear dream.

Ultimately, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission gave the responsibility to Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan to develop indigenous technology of ultracentrifuge.

Pakistan ultimately succeeded in her goals.  One reason for this success was a tight secrecy.  The West labeled Pakistani Nuclear Program as "Islamic Bomb" and considered it a threat to the Western global strategic interests.  Israel was also worried about the Pakistani nuclear program and there was some intelligence information that Israel in collaboration with India was contemplating an air strike against the nuclear installation of Pakistan in Kahuta.

There is strong public support behind Pakistani nuclear program.  Pakistani people believe that the West has double standards regarding nuclear proliferation. The West tolerates the nuclearization of Israel while they are against any nuclear program in any Muslim country.  Pakistan as well as India both refused to sign the Compressive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Pakistan, as well as India, by not signing the CTBT, are asserting their political independence at the same time nuclearization of both countries would contribute to the arm race in the South Asia.  Both India and Pakistan are arch enemies and their nuclear programs will have serious consequences for world peace.  I also believe that nuclearization of Pakistan and India is inevitable.  Very soon Iran will also be in the nuclear world.  I believe that nuclear technology is 50 years old and its acquisition is not that difficult. If there is strong determination and necessary scientific expertise, then it could be acquired.

Fida Mohammed


 

Pakistan's Radioactive Bazaar

According to Tim McGirk in World Press Review (July 1996: 35) enriched uranium is stolen from the maximum security facilities of the former Soviet Union and is smuggled to  Afghanistan and North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.  Some of the stolen uranium from Kazakhistan ended up in Iran via the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a city under the control of an Afghan warlord, General Abdulrashid Dostum.  Mazar-i-Sharif is considered as a transit point in the nuclear smuggling route.  Usually the final destination of the these materials is Peshawar, the frontier city of Pakistan.

McGirk believes that "the main destination for nuclear wares is Peshawar. There, nuclear salesmen, usually Afghans, offer such dangerous contraband as enriched uranium, super-powerful magnets, catalysts, and alloys for making the shells of thermonuclear warheads.  This lethal nuclear contraband is coming down the same trans-Asia pipeline used by Afghans to move guns, heroin, and looted Buddha statues-some worth hundreds of thousands of dollars-through Moscow and into Europe.  Few Afghan smugglers now holding the nuclear material are aware of its radioactive effects." McGirk reports that "often, antiquities smugglers run a sideline in nuclear merchandise. One Western art expert, who was expecting to see plundered antiquities from Afghanistan, instead was shown 2,650 pounds of enriched uranium. It was packed in lead cylinders and hidden under the floorboards of a house in a residential area of Peshawar. He says, "I got the impression that these smugglers didn't know how to handle the stuff at all."

Peshawar and Afghanistan appear to be like a nuclear bazaar for many international customers.

According to Mr. McGirk "Western embassies in Islamabad claim that Pakistan is helpless to stop nuclear traders because the country's mountainous border with Afghanistan cannot be sealed. One diplomat says, "These Afghans are real entrepreneurs. They want money, and they don't care if somebody like a terrorist dumps this radioactive material into the water supply or makes it into a bomb."

What will be the environmental consequences of this nuclear bazaar nobody knows. One thing in my opinion is sure and that is that it is very difficult to close this nuclear bazaar. There are many countries in the world who are interested in the nuclear technology.  As long as there is a demand for the nuclear material, there will be people who will be willing provide the material.  Environmental consequences of the radioactive material is not a major issue in the Third world.