Pak should propose joint civil nuclear plants to India: Shireen
15 February, 2013
ISLAMABAD: Strategic and security experts found it "innovative and interesting" when Dr Shireen Mazari suggested that Pakistan should propose joint civil nuclear power plants to India along the border of the two countries as a security confidence building measure. She said that this would not only help end energy crisis in the two countries but will also prove to be "the best deterrence" for the two nuclear powers. Those present in the meeting thought that it could have been an option but keeping in view the response and behaviour of India over the already-launched confidence building measures and its approach towards Pakistan, it was almost bound to get a cold Indian shoulder like other Pakistani suggestions for lasting peace in the region. It was also observed that confidence-building mechanisms, including trade, cannot work until real progress was made on the core issue of Kashmir. Dr Mazari was addressing a distinguished audience of security, strategy and foreign policy experts at the Institute of Policy Studies in a seminar on "Emerging Nuclear Scenario", which was chaired by IPS Chairman Professor Khurshid Ahmad and moderated by IPS council member Air Commodore (r) Khalid Iqbal. Dr Mazari observed that the nuclear arms control and disarmament area has always been premised on two parallel tracks: one being the "US-favoured discriminatory approach" embodied earlier in non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and now taking shape of Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) and the other "non-discriminatory approach" manifested in international agreements like CTBT and certain IAEA initiatives. Referring to the most recent and third nuclear test by North Korea, she said that such actions could be taken almost with impunity because the most significant treaty in the current international setting with respect to nuclear power, NPT, is being undermined by its proponents. In this respect she highlighted and criticised Indo-US nuclear deal for which special waivers were sought by the US from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in violation of all sets of existing international laws on the subject. Following the precedent set by the US, France and Britain too have signed such deals with India in contravention of their NPT obligations. End.
|
