While New Delhi debates the survival of the Manmohan Singh government over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Pakistan is stepping up diplomatic efforts in Vienna to press for a vote on the India-specific safeguards agreement besides questioning the hurry shown by the IAEA to obtain approval for this agreement.

As a member of the 35-member IAEA board of governors, Pakistan, sources said, is holding out against a consensus in the informal consultations underway among board members in Vienna ahead of the August 1 board meet that will consider this matter. Sources said hectic diplomacy is going on, especially by the US, to get Pakistan not to block a consensus.

Usually, the “Vienna spirit” is to achieve a consensus regardless of which side the majority is on any issue that comes to IAEA. Voting has always been the last option and, in fact, the last voting took place on the Iran nuclear programme two years ago. According to officials, there has rarely been an instance of voting on a safeguards agreement.

While this issue is still in the realm of informal consultations, sources said, Islamabad has in the past couple of weeks raised objections to the urgency being shown in Vienna to push the India-specific safeguards agreement.

At first, it raised a technical point that the nuclear facilities to be brought under safeguards have not been listed in the annexures of the agreement finalised with India. As a board member, Pakistan took the view that the IAEA secretariat should wait till the facilities can be specifically listed and then bring the matter before the board of governors.

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