NEW DELHI, July 9: While India has signed, deposited its instrument of ratification and submitted the details of its chemical weapons stockpile with the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, Pakistan continues with the research, development and stockpiling of chemical weapons.In spite of signing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), but not ratifying it, Pakistan's chemical weapons arsenal remains an ever-burgeoning entity. Islamabad's inability to ratify the CWC is regarded as the consequence of a struggle between its military and political leadership over controlling the programmes of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Unlike India where the military knows as much about the WMD programmes as the man on the street, in Pakistan, thus far, the military is firmly in the saddle as regards these programmes. Declassified documents of western and European origin accessed by The Indian Express underline the fact that Pakistan has a fairly well established chemical weapons (CW) programme dating back almost two decades. While chemical weapons are of broadly four types, Pakistan's programme has largely focussed on Vesicants or blistering agents, Nerve and Blood agents. The fourth type being the Choking agents (see box).The fulcrum of Pakistan's CW programme has been the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DESTO) and its laboratories at Chaklala in the North-West Frontier Province. The other major participant in the CW programme is alleged to be the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry at the University of Karachi. Unlike nuclear technology which requires a fairly extensive scientific base, chemical warfare agents can quite easily be made with commercially available equipment. This has been elaborately achieved by DESTO and closely coordinated with Pakistan's ``well-developed refining, pharmaceutical, and fertilizer industries'', says a western document. ``It has been established that in Pakistan research is being conducted in the area of chemistry of toxic and especially dangerous substances and microbiology'', states a European document.It is the import in large batches of dual-use chemicals that has been a source of concern to those observing Pakistan's CW programme. While verifying the shipment into Karachi of significant amounts of phosphorous compounds, the European document details the sharp increase in Pakistan's purchases of arsenic abroad. From 2.5 tonnes in 1987 it jumped to 31.4 tonnes in 1991. The sourcing was from east Asia. Elaborating further, the European agency claims that information culled from private enterprises in Pakistan, native and multinational, suggests that they do not use receiving arsenic. ``Available information on the nature of technologies at state industrial enterprises does not make it possible to adequately explain its use on such a considerable scale. In spite of the large volume of imported arsenic, all the information about it has been removed from the customs service manual'', says the European document.Basing its analysis on the work of Pakistani environmentalists, the document goes on to state that tens of thousands of tonnes of pesticides are in long-term storage in Sindh and Punjab provinces. This despite persistent shortages of pesticides, and, therefore, ``there is no explanation for the accumulation of these chemicals'', says the document.Pakistan's CW programme has primarily revolved around Vesicants like Sulphur Mustard and Lewisite, Blood agents like Hydrogen Cyanide and the lethal Nerve agents like Sarin, Soman, Tabun and VX, VE, VM of the `V' series. This has resulted in the purchase of equipment for chemical Pakistan stockpiling chemical weapons warfare, as well as an elaborate training programme for such types of fighting. While in the 1980s, Pakistan was reported to have imported 25,000-30,000 S-10 gas masks from Britain, the current figure is estimated to be around 75,000 gas masks in its inventory. It had, also in the same period, purchased 50,000 M-59 respirators from Italy. And it has imported at least 10,000 nuclear-biological-chemical protective overgarments from China.A full-fledged CW capability, however, depends on the CW agents being delivered onto the troops and territories of the opponent. And in the fields of delivery systems, Pakistan is reported to have developed CW ammunitions for its 155 mm and 203 mm howitzers, as well as free fall bombs for its aircraft. According to the documents of an intelligence agency, Pakistan has been conducting an increasingly large number of courses in NBC warfare with the assistance of a major western power, and ``NBC equipment is also expected'' from that country. Pakistan's research, development and stockpiling of CW agents, its purchases of NBC equipment and its training programme suggests that it can deploy 8-12 brigades in an NBC environment.Easily manufactured killers Owing to the level of technologies involved, a nuclear weapons programme requires a large, specialised and a rather costly scientific-industrial infrastructure. But not so chemical weapons, commonly known as the `poor man's atom bombs'. Chemical warfare agents, or substances, can be manufactured with equipment generally available commercially to any country. Chemical industrial plants capable of manufacturing organic phosphorous pesticides or even flame retardants can easily be converted in a matter of weeks to facilities producing CW agents. While there may be some difficulties in the case of certain procedures in the production of nerve agents, ``they would represent more of a nuisance than a true obstacle to a determined proliferant'', says a United States government document.Chemical weapons essentially revolve around four types of agents:* Blood agents like Hydrogen Cyanide. These starve the tissues of oxygen.* Choking agents such as Phosgene and Chlorine. They irritate the eyes and the respiratory tract.* Vesicants, or blistering agents like Sulphur Mustard and Lewisite. These burn, blister the skin and lungs.
