Pak may not sign CTBT by Septmeber

When his attention was drawn to political developments in India and apphrehension that following the fall of the Vajpayee Government New Delhi may not be able to sign the CTBT immediately, Aziz told the paper that Islamabad was evaluating the Indian stand in this regard.

The newspaper, however, quoting reliable sources in the government, claimed that the Nawaz Sharif government was going to undertake a review of its stand on CTBT this month in view of the“latest developments.”

It further said that Sharif would be chairing a crucial meeting in this regard towards month end after the return of army chief general Pervez Musharraf from his China visit.

Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee had expressed doubts recently about new Delhi signing CTBT by September 1999 in view of the political uncertainty in India following the fall of his government and the impending elections.

The latest Indian position on CTBT has apparently unnerved Pakistani authorities as a large section of people here still believe that Islamabad should not sign the treaty before New Delhi despite the declared Pakistani stand that its signing of the treaty did not have any link with Indian stand on the same.

The hard-line religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, has already dubbed Pakistan’s official committment to sign the CTBT by September this year as "alarming".