‘As A Long-Standing Responsible Nuclear State, Pakistan Qualifies For Full Access to Civil Nuclear Technology,’ States Senator Sehar Kamran (Ti) At the Policy Seminar of Senate Standing Committee on Defense and Defense Production

Thursday, Oct 24^th 2012
Islamabad

At the Policy Seminar of State Standing Committee on Defense, Senator Sehar Kamran (TI) put forward the case for getting Pakistan access to Civil Nuclear Technology, and counter the negative and unjust perceptions of the country abroad. Pakistan fully qualifies to have full access to Civil Nuclear Technology for peaceful purposes, she said, as it possesses the requisite expertise, manpower and infrastructure to produce civil nuclear energy, which in turn, will create opportunities for economic development and will contribute in achieving peace and prosperity.

The strains on the global non-proliferation regime have become acute in the recent years. The pursuit of policies based on discrimination and double standards by some major international powers has damaged the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. Pakistan wants to work with international community in pursuit of reestablishing a robust global nonproliferation regime. Pakistan does not believe in No Nuclear First USE (NFU), but believes in Nonaggression and No Use of Force (NUF) posture both in conventional and strategic domains.

She further said that Pakistan’s policy on nuclear non-proliferation is very transparent and clear. It is directly linked with its national security interests and concerns. Pakistan wants its inclusion in nuclear export control regimes such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), particularly as it has been playing a vital role at regional and global levels as far as the nuclear non-proliferation is concerned.

The threat of non-state actors accessing Pakistan’s nuclear assets is simply part of a baseless propaganda campaign; Pakistan has an effective command and control system and is fully capable of managing the security of its nuclear assets. And it must not be forgotten that extremist element in Pakistan has, to a great extent, been exported by international power players.

Pakistan must make immense efforts to work on its perception management for countering the misperceptions and negative propaganda currently being applied and accelerate efforts to acquire Civil Nuclear Technology.