10-man panel, thousands of personnel guard n-assets

Pervez Musharraf’s departure is unlikely to have a significant impact on how Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are controlled.

Pervez Musharraf’s departure is unlikely to have a significant impact on how Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are controlled. Experts say a 10-member committee, and not just the president, makes decisions on how to use them and only a complete meltdown in governance, still a distant prospect in Pakistan, could put the bomb in the hands of extremists.

“Pakistan’s nuclear assets are not one man’s property,” said Maria Sultan, a defense analyst and director at the London-based South Asian Strategic Stability Institute. “Any (political) transition in Pakistan will have no effect on Pakistan’s nuclear assets because it has a very strong custodial control.”

The committee, known as the National Command Authority, is served by a military-dominated organisation with thousands of security forces and intelligence agents whose personnel are closely screened. Khalid Kidwai, head of the Strategic Plans Division which handles Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, told journalists that Pakistan uses 10,000 soldiers to keep the weapons safe and has received up to $10 million in US assistance to enhance security. He said there was “no conceivable scenario” in which al-Qaeda or Taliban militants would take power, and asserted that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, fissile material and infrastructure were “absolutely safe and secure.” The military-run Strategic Plans Division was instituted by Musharraf.

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The chairmanship of the 10-member National Command Authority that would make the final decision on the deployment or use of weapons will now transfer to acting president Mohammedmian Soomro, the chairman of the upper house of parliament.

Although one of Asia’s poorer nations, Pakistan became the Islamic world’s first atomic power.

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