Proliferation parody

On the face of it the incongruity is discernible: In the middle of a war ostensibly launched to change the regime in Baghdad because it had ...

On the face of it the incongruity is discernible: In the middle of a war ostensibly launched to change the regime in Baghdad because it had pursued acquisition of weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems, the United States, for the umpteenth time, has imposed 8220;symbolic8221; sanctions against Pakistan for importing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles from North Korea.

According to US sources, Pakistan had imported 8220;full-fledged No Dong8221; 1,300-km range missiles even during the summer of last year bringing in the systems in US-supplied C-130 transport aircraft probably flying across Chinese territory, at a time when the military forces of Pakistan and India had been fully deployed on the borders with a high risk that a war could break out.

In fact, the US was strongly advocating restraint at that time, while Pakistan was holding forth nuclear threats to India along with the demonstration launch of the North Korean supplied Ghauri missiles.

The way these sanctions have been crafted, the US seems to have even given up any pretence that it intends to hold Pakistan to its international obligations. The US claims that the sanctions are meant to make it 8220;clear that buying weapons from North Korea has a direct and negative impact on the security of the United States8221;.

But these sanctions target the A.Q. Khan Nuclear Research Institute at Kahuta 8212; which is now projected as an entity 8220;separate from the government8221; 8212; and not the government itself. This facility, which developed nuclear weapons clandestinely, could hardly be carrying out any commercial activity with the US which now stands barred.

On the other hand, if the US believes that A.Q. Khan facility is a non-government private entity, as its officials seem to have made out, the situation is even more bizarre. It8217;s difficult to imagine this jihadi-culture dominated facility as a private enterprise!

The current sanctions have been conditioned by the desire not to punish Islamabad in any way since the later was seen as co-operating in the US war on terrorism! Obviously Washington ignores the fact that we were assured by it that Islamabad would stop terrorism from Pakistani soil and end infiltration across the borders into India.

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Even on the issue of Pakistan-North Korea quid pro quo arrangements of missiles and nuclear weapons technology, it seems General Musharraf had assured the US government at the highest levels that there will be no such action in future. Past sins of proliferation are easily forgotten in Washington till a new violation is discovered and attracts the attention of policy-makers.

But the problem for our security is that the capability thus acquired, even if incrementally, remains with Pakistan, and requires that we factor this into our own defence policy. Washington must realise that its permissiveness has, in fact, both contributed to the intransigence of Pakistan, and impinged negatively on our security environment.