Shamsa Ashfaq
Of late, there have been obstinate concerns raised both nationally and internationally vis-à-vis safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear technology. It is surprising to note that safety and security issue of Pakistan’s nuclear programme raises its head whenever India’s efforts begin afresh to seek NSG membership, which makes the equation as if Indian qualification to enter NSG is directly proportional to proving Pakistani nukes as a threat. interestingly, this theory is not only beaten up by the west alone but some local voices also join the campaign of propagating unwarranted concerns with regards to Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Though the practice has gone unabated all these years and will continue to do so however it becomes obligatory to dispel such concerns and apprehensions raised by international stake-holders while glancing over several regulatory measures regarding nuclear material safety and security in Pakistan.
First and foremost, all must understand that unlike India, Pakistan went nuclear not by choice but by compulsion. And that compulsion aroused out of the security threat posed by India with whom Pakistan already had three full-scale wars and a constant state of tension causing continuous military preparedness marking almost seven decades of bitter rivalry between the two countries. Moreover, notwithstanding the role and sacrifices of Pakistan as a result of American led WoT, India perpetually accuses Islamabad for supporting violence in mainland India and Indian held Kashmir (IHK). Perversely, New Delhi has also been using its consulates in Afghanistan as bases for malevolent interference in Pakistan. Paradoxically, the US state functionaries have always sided with India on the issue of violence either in Kashmir or Balochistan and FATA. All these factors not only exaggerated Islamabad’s sensitivities related to security and stability but also compelled it to fortify its defenses against a nuclear armed rival.
The security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, materials and technology continues to be a top-tier US as well as Indian concern, despite the fact that Pakistan has always been more responsible nuclear state among regional as well as international strata of nuclear states and still continues to improve its nuclear security. Pakistan’s civil nuclear programme is largely regulated under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and mechanisms and overseen by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), which was established in 2001 with a specific purpose of ensuring the safety and security of radiological material from the moment it is imported into the country till its safe disposal. It is to allay concerns of those who fear falling of Pakistani nukes at the hands of Taliban or ISIS that the PNRA maintains an updated database of all radiological sources in the country and carries out periodic inspections to ensure that all material is safely stored, does not pose any hazard to and is not vulnerable to theft or sabotage. Additionally, PNRA is also responsible to locate and secure “Orphan Radioactive Sources” defined as “sources not under regulatory control, either because they have never been under regulatory control or because they have been abandoned, lost, misplaced, stolen or transferred without proper authorization”.
Furthermore, a five-year National nuclear Safety Action Plan (NNSAP) aims to protect the public from hazards of radiation in case of an untoward incident. The emergency response centre of NNSAP works around the clock and has also started training courses with the assistance of the IAEA. To top it, there is Pakistan’s Centre of Excellence for Nuclear Security (PCENS), which conducts several national and international training courses focusing on physical protection, personal reliability as well as safety and security of nuclear and radiological materials and facilities.
As a responsible nuclear weapon state Pakistan has high standard of professionalism and commitment to safeguarding its strategic assets. Even Director General (DG) IAEA Yukiya Amano on the sidelines of the 70th UN General assembly Session has also praised Pakistan’s impressive nuclear security record spanning over four decades of nuclear power plant operation.
It is because of highest standards of Pakistan’s nuclear security regime that in decades there is only one incident of heavy water leakage at one of the nuclear site in Karachi in decades. Whereas, global sources report about 99 nuclear accidents worldwide and almost two-thirds (56 out of 99) of all nuclear-related accidents have occurred in the US. India’s nuclear safeguards have also been recorded as alarming by the IAEA with an extensive record of radioactive material theft. India also ranks below Pakistan and China in the list of countries with a weak nuclear material security in the world, according to Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Nuclear Material Security Index 2014. Ironically, “responsible” India has no autonomous regulatory agency and regulations are written as guidance alone rather than as requirements. A review of “unusual occurrences” contained within the annual report of Atomic Energy regulatory Board (AERB) reveals that there have been 16 cases of loss, theft or misplacement of radioactive sources across India since 2001, in which radioactive material found its way into the environment. Most significant and latest in series being the cases of radioactive material leak at Indira Gandhi International airport on a shipment of nuclear medicine and missing of radioactive isotope cylinders from a steel plant in Durgapur district of India. Yet, the world at large seems relatively relaxed about India going shopping in the nuclear supermarket. Isn’t it exposes the hypocrisies that surround the trading of uranium?
Seemingly India has fitted its policies into western strategy of weakening Pakistan’s nuclear systems therefore Indian stockpiling of nuclear arsenal, greater than any other country in the region is accepted as a policy norm by the US and thus presenting Pakistan’s nuclear weapons a threat is understandable but wrong. However, in the large interest of the World peace, international community direly needs to shake its tranquilized conscience and reign in India’s paranoid nuclear establishment which is totally unaware of the extent to which its aggressive nuclear posture has become a cause of strategic imbalance among regional countries.
