From
the Editor: Akhtar
Mahmud Faruqui
March 24, 2006
US Refusal:
A Blessing in Disguise?
The Press Conference at the Islamabad Aiwan-i-Sadr
on March 4 furnished an unusual spectacle: US ambassador
Ryan C. Crocker seated close to First Lady Laura
Bush with eyes closed and presenting a picture of
nonchalance, a diffident President Musharraf fidgeting
nervously at the rostrum, and President Bush visibly
lacking warmth and going through the formality of
defining US-Pakistan ties.
The visit had earlier buoyed expectations. Only
a few days ago, President Bush had told the PTV
that the “first thing that’s really
important for people to understand is that relations
between our countries often times depend on the
relations between the leaders…” His
visit would give a chance to speak to the people
of Pakistan, and say, look we care for you, and
remind people that in our country there’s
a great (community of) Pakistani Americans.
Yet, on March 4 such noble protestations hardly
found a vocal expression. Instead, the US President
made a jarring remark that rattled Pakistanis –
within and without. “We discussed a civilian
nuclear program, and I explained that Pakistan and
India are different countries with different needs
and different histories. So, as we proceed forward,
our strategy will take in effect those well-known
differences.”
Given the fact that both Pakistan and India enjoy
equal nuclear power status, and both acted clandestinely
and zestfully to reach the epic goal, the preferential
reference to the latter sounded particularly stinging.
But the remark did not come as a complete surprise
to knowledgeable viewers who were seized of the
fact that US patronage of India’s nuclear
strivings has had a precedent. India successfully
graduated into the nuclear weapon club, thanks to
the support that it unwittingly received from the
US. Congressional Committee hearings on the first
Indian nuclear explosion in the seventies led to
the startling disclosure that over 1,100 Indian
scientists and engineers had received training at
various AEC facilities in the United States. What
is more, a 72-million dollar US AID loan facilitated
the installation of India’s first major reactor
at Tarapur. As early as 1956, India imported 21
tons of heavy water for its CIRRUS reactor. It was
plutonium from CIRRUS that was used for the 1974
Pokhran explosion.
Another Washington report identifies India as one
of the nine sensitive countries “which obtained
US government technology and computer codes useful
for developing atomic weapons despite laws limiting
the release of such data.” The USA indirectly
assisted India to stage its 1974 nuclear explosion
through the liberal publication of unclassified
(fuel) reprocessing information. The latest nuclear
deal between the US and India therefore should not
come as a complete surprise.
A reason advanced for signing the March 2 agreement
in Delhi was that India, unlike Pakistan, has not
been a nuclear proliferator! The facts speak to
the contrary. India’s role in aiding and abetting
Iran’s nuclear program is well known. So also
its shady dealings with Iraq. To cite just one example:
On January 19, 2002, the Los Angeles Times splashed
a screaming headline over the front page “Indian
Firm Aided Iraq”. The disclosure came at a
time when the US was abuzz with war preparations
against Baghdad. The Times charge was well substantiated.
Said a paragraph preceding the explosive text: “In
defiance of UN resolutions, a company used deceit
to export material that could be used in weapons,
Indian court records show.” Replete with evidence,
the exhaustive story by Times Staff Writer Bob Drogin
in New Delhi, was revealing: “An obscure Indian
trading company has provided the first clear evidence
that Iraq obtained materials over the last four
years to produce or deliver weapons of mass destruction.
The company, NEC Engineering Private Ltd., used
phony customs declarations and other false documents,
as well as front companies in three countries, to
export 10 consignments of raw materials and equipment
that Saddam Hussein’s regime could use to
produce chemical weapons and propellants for long-range
missiles, according to Indian court sources…”
Regretfully, while efforts to smear Pakistan have
followed an unrelentingly uniform pattern, such
disclosures hardly recur in the Western media and
are conveniently forgotten by journalists, diplomats,
politicians, and administration!
What is the immediate offshoot of the March 2 Indo-US
nuclear agreement? Pakistan is being advised to
harness alternative sources of energy! A country
outclassed in conventional resources and in pressing
need of nuclear power is being asked to spurn the
nuclear energy option. Is history in the process
of repeating itself?
There is the singularly inexplicable precedent of
India playing foul in the seventies by conducting
a nuclear test and restrictions being imposed on
Pakistan to penalize Islamabad so as to curtail
its nuclear strivings! Soon after the Indian explosion,
Canada backed out from its agreement to extend technical
support and fuel to the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant
(KANUPP). Blackouts were predicted in Pakistan’s
‘city of lights’ – Karachi –
as the nuclear plant meeting one-third of the city’s
needs at that time found itself precariously perched.
Numerous measures were taken to scuttle Pakistan’s
peaceful program: even young scientists aspiring
to pursue nuclear science studies at foreign universities
were barred from doing so. Inertia crept into the
vibrant research centers and gleaming research reactors
established by the visionary Dr I. H. Usmani whose
quest for quintessential excellence was inspirational.
The restrictions took their toll. During an exasperating
period of several years not a single megawatt nuclear
capacity was added to the grid. Karachiites gained
familiarity with KANUPP’s “teething
problems,” “load shedding” operations
and “reactor tripping” outages. But
the blackouts proved a passing phenomenon. Thanks
to painstaking strivings and subsequent successes
on several fronts – uranium exploration, prospecting
and mining in D. G. Khan; laboratory undertakings
at PINSTECH whose architectural beauty was competently
matched by R&D; training at the Center for Nuclear
Studies and the Karachi Nuclear Power Training Center;
development of indigenous nuclear expertise –
KANUPP began to puff and gradually gathered steam
on locally manufactured nuclear fuel. The restrictions
imposed by Canada and other Western countries came
to be regarded as a blessing in disguise as Pakistan
was launched on a self-reliant course. Pakistani
scientists bravely demonstrated that where there’s
a will, there’s a way.
The March 4 memories hurt but as a nation we have
to learn from past experiences and move on. Blissfully,
there is infinite hope in the words of the late
Professor Abdus Salam: “Ours is a numerous
- potentially a great - nation. Our tragedy is that
we do not seem to realize this; we act in a narrow
manner only befitting a small nation. Our people
have a natural endowment of first-class talent in
science - once it is developed. I am not saying
this as a starry-eyed patriot. I know this from
experience after a lifetime of supervising researchers
of many nationalities. Likewise, there is no question
that we have a great talent in technology. Could
a people who can write a whole surah of the Holy
Book on a grain of rice not succeed equally when
it comes to microelectronics?”
–afaruqui@pakistanlink.com
- afaruqui@pakistanlink.com
