Author: Editorial
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 30, 2007
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2500648.cms
Introduction: Pakistan's record makes it the
world's most dangerous N-weapons state
According to a new book by two British journalists,
Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, Pakistan readied nuclear missiles for
use against India during the Kargil war. These revelations are alarming, all
the more so because they correspond more and less with another behind-the-scenes
account of the war that had been published earlier by Bruce Riedel, a National
Security Council staffer in the Clinton administration.
According to these accounts, President Bill
Clinton asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif if he knew that his military was
preparing to use nukes against India. Sharif indicated that he didn't. The
Americans were unsure who really commanded Pakistan's nukes, an extremely
dangerous situation from the point of view of nuclear safety.
In democratic India, or even in authoritarian
China, one at least knows what the nuclear chain of command is and, therefore,
who to contact in case of emergency. In anarchic Pakistan, where power is
shared in somewhat opaque ways among civilian heads, military and intelligence
chiefs, it's not clear whose finger may be on the nuclear button during a
crisis. As things happened, the Kargil war was contained before it became
a wider conflagration.
But what if it hadn't? What if, for example, Indian forces had failed to oust
Pakistani intruders and had to open other fronts along the border? President
Bush thinks World War III might start from Iran, a country not known to possess
any nuclear weapons yet.
But what of Pakistan, a country which not
only starts a war but casually threatens to turn it nuclear? Neither Iran
nor North Korea have come close to doing this, which ought to make Pakistan
top the charts in terms of being the world's most irresponsible and dangerous
nuclear state. It's a threat not only to India's security but to that of the
world. Islamabad has been willing to share its nuclear know-how for a consideration.
The idea that A Q Khan alone sold nuclear secrets, without the knowledge of
the Pakistani military, is a convenient fiction that nobody really believes.
The full extent of the nuclear racket has never been unravelled. Even Khan
is not available for questioning and could die with his secrets.
Islamabad has been given a pass for years
because of its supposed role in the war against terror, but it has allowed
its tribal areas to turn into sanctuaries for Al-Qaida and the Taliban. The
world, particularly the United States, must help Islamabad realise that being
a nuclear weapons state confers huge responsibilities. The international community
must pressure Pakistan to become an open, predictable and accountable state
where power, and the nuclear button, are placed safely in civilian hands,
with institutional safeguards against wayward use.
