The National Command Authority (NCA) of Pakistan has warned that the US-India Civil Nuclear Energy Deal, which would enable India to produce significant quantities of fissile material and nuclear weapons from un-safeguarded nuclear reactors, may ignite an arms race and have implications on strategic stability in South Asia.

In what could be described as an indirect criticism of the discriminatory US policy in favour of India, the NCA, which held its first meeting after the US-India agreement, observed: “The objective of strategic stability in South Asia and the global non-proliferation regime would have been better served if the United States had considered a package approach for Pakistan and India, the two non-NPT nuclear weapons states, with a view to preventing a nuclear arms race in the region and promoting restraints while ensuring that the legitimate needs of both countries for civil nuclear power generation are met.”

The authority is responsible for policy formulation and exercises employment and development control over all strategic nuclear forces and strategic organisations. It was formed in February 2000, pursuant to a decision of the National Security Council (NSC).

The meeting held at the strategic planning division was presided over by Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf and attended by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, the services chiefs, senior scientists and other civil and military officials.

The participants said while continuing to act with responsibility in maintaining a credible minimum deterrence and avoiding an arms race, Pakistan would neither be oblivious to its security requirements, nor to the needs of its economic development which demanded growth in the energy sector.

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