What Pakistan’s Bomb Could Not Buy

Re: # 20: WHy do you feel the need to establish a parity in countries that are so vastly different in size, population, economic fortunes and histories? Hegemoic ecnomic plans? LOL! India controls less than 5% of global trade...where is the hegemony?

When a trillion dollar economy grows at 6+% for 15 years it is a different beast compared to one that looks like volatility trading chart. Look at the percentage of total spending of GDP on planes, tanks and missiles for India vis-a-vis Pakistan. The competition is simply viewed one way...from Pakistan`s side. There is no competition when sitting in Delhi.

maulana urstruly, if you are lurking, would this behaviour qualify as beghairat..what`re the chances that AQK will have a fatal heart attack in the next 6 months?

Mystery of Pakistan`s cloistered scientist

The large house in a plush district of Pakistan`s capital, Islamabad, that was once his home is now his prison.

Dr Khan has been confined to house arrest since his confession in February 2004 that, as the man who had helped deliver the nuclear bomb to his native Pakistan, he had gone on to transfer nuclear secrets and technology to an array of countries around the world.

Next to the main building sits a guesthouse in which Dr Khan used to entertain his friends and contacts, including many of the Western businessmen who worked closely with him.

Now, the guesthouse is the site of the security detail that monitors Dr Khan`s movements and ensures there is no unauthorised contact between him and the outside world.

One of the few people who had been allowed to visit regularly was his daughter Ayesha.

But for the past five weeks, she has been unable to enter her father`s house.

No other family members are allowed to visit.

Investigation `over`

The BBC has also learnt that other measures have been put in place to tighten security.

These include a gate that has been covered up so that no-one can look into the garden and which ensures that Dr Khan cannot look out.

In recent months, other friends and former associates of Dr Khan have been instructed not to talk to journalists or anyone else about him after previously being allowed to do so.

The timing for the tightening of security is mysterious.

It comes at almost exactly the same moment that Pakistani officials announced their investigation of Dr Khan was over.

They also released the last of his former staff who had been held by authorities for more than two years.

Pakistani officials say they have shared all the information they have with international investigators, including those from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The matter is closed, Pakistani officials say, hoping that the world may one day slowly forget about the man the government in Islamabad once feted as a national hero.

Iranian question

Meanwhile, the US has been quietly but consistently pressing for greater access to Dr Khan.

The CIA would like to talk to him direct but Pakistan has resisted, saying instead that questions have to be passed through Pakistani intelligence officers who will then return with the answers.

The official line is that Pakistan should be trusted with the investigation and anything else would be a violation of national sovereignty.

But the suspicion has always been that the authorities are resistant to direct questioning for fear that Dr Khan might suggest Pakistani government or military officials knew of his transfers of nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran or Libya.

The US wants to talk to Dr Khan not primarily to answer the question of Pakistani government involvement but rather to see if the scientist could reveal more about his support for Iran`s nuclear programme.

The US particularly wants to know whether Iran is peaceful in intent, as Tehran claims, or geared towards making nuclear weapons, as Washington argues.

In the case of Libya, Dr Khan supplied a nuclear weapons design and investigators wonder whether he could have done the same with Iran.

Confirmation of any such transfer would be highly useful for the US but would also cause embarrassment for President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.

But the mystery remains as to why security would be tightened at the house and visits restricted at this time.

Dr Khan himself remains isolated, his health reportedly deteriorating.

Trapped with him are the secrets regarding what exactly he did, why he did it and precisely who helped him.

Re: # 40

tahmed,

....exactly ! ........... it is nice that we have the bomb and may they multiply and grow bigger and badder so that the horrible hindoos, with their armpit knives and big pitchforks, do not dare cast an evil eye on the land of the pure and ignorant ....... actually, i believe that everyone should have a bomb - the iranians, the fijians and the papua new guineans ...... yea, that`s it, a chicken in every pot and a bomb in every garage ......... but the real question is: then what ? .......... and that`s what dr hoodbhoy and other clever people should be focused on instead of wringing their hands and crying in their yakhni .......

.......... this nuclear stuff, like the chicken flu, is overated

zeemax(grand poohbah of south asian geopolitics): I hear the new Paki foreign minister and Karzai are sayign some interesting things about Pakiland...The foreign minister who was put there at Paki behest by the grim looking Abizaid..

I also heard the USAF bombed Paki territory and whacked a bunch of paki citizens again?

Wutz up wit dat? I thought you said Pakiland was the puppet master there..

#27 by HisExcellency on May 29, 2006 6:49am PT


Can any country allow foreigners to dictate its domestic politics?


Sure..Pakiland does it all the time..Why else is the USAF repeatedly violating Pakiland`s airspace and bombing and killing Paki civilians on Paki soil..

So: All clear headed men (nasah, hamidm, anil, kaalchakra) can agree on the facts. Which basically are, as nasah eloquently put it, equally immature Nawaz Sharif had no choice but to explode a few crackers to pour some ice water down on Advani jee`s (now a Jinnah admirer) nucear erection.... . In other words, only a bigger fool than Nawaz Sharif could have turned India`s overwhelming odds against Pakistan into a nuclear stalemate (and jump with glee in the process)...and Indian politicians were up to that task. And the good professor hoodbhoy will no doubt keep moaning and groaning forever over Pakistan being able to defend itself.

But lets go beyond this now: For that I refer to majumdar #13 where he correctly points out that with India neutralized, Pakistan`s real enemies are now internal to Pakistan. And that is indeed the case. If the good professor hoodbhoy is reading this: Please, Professor Hoodbhoy, be a Goodbhoy and get over this damned bomb and focus your energies on something more relevant today, namely the real issues facing Pakistan today . The real issue is the need to ensure free and fair elections in 2007. There are indeed internal enemies of pakistan - hiding behind beards and behind uniforms - who will come in the way of these elections. So, professor sahib, please focus your energies on these relevant issues, not non-issues like your ranting over the bomb.

If anything, it made clear that Pakistan can now never hope for a military victory in Kashmir.


Yup..Pakis will have to swallow the bitter pill and realize that Kashmir will never Banega Pakiland..not the Indian part..

Usually bitter pills can be swallowed with sugar but I hear that`s pretty expensive in Pakiland right now and some of it is from India anyway..

It`s ironic..Pakis swallowing the bitter pill with Indian sugar...

Re: # 34
````some ice water down on Advani jee`s (now a Jinnah admirer) nucear erection.... ``

LOL. Hasan Sahib, very funny........


except you created an imagination in my mind of the Advani`s p44s..........and I had enough for the day and I am leaving Chowk.......

Re: # 29

Hamidm sahib:

``....pakistan did not come up with a tit to match india`s tat ``

You really wanted Pakistani ``tit``. I thought you would concede Indian ``tit`` is better.

Anil

Re: # 33

The pride is understandable.......but unfortunately it is not based on
reality. If you had developed a genuinely indigenous technological
base, instituitions of your own and then built bombs and missiles
nothing wrong for you to feel proud. Missile technology so far has been
simply repainting NK missiles:-) Also as Dr.Hoodbhoy points out
you have just about NOTHING to show in other ``first-rate`` scientific
fields.

India did misuse the reactor from Canada...but a lot of its
technology is indigenous and it has several other accomplishments
to show off in other fields.

Missiles and the bomb have given you a false sense of equality/
accomplishment. We have nothing to gain if you accept this folly!

Re: # 34

Nasah:

I got a real kick out of your description.

Anil

``The Kargil episode offers the very first example in history where nuclear weapons, by dint of creating a presumed shield for launching conventional covert operations, were responsible for having brought about a war.

The unrestrained propagation of false beliefs in nuclear security brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a full-blown confrontation that could well have been the very last one. Arguably it was the BJP that, by ordering Pokhran-II, fathered Kargil.`` (Hoodbhoy)

-- a 100% correct asessment -- a Crass Commando turned Demented Dictator vs the Buffoon Bajpayee -- the way that Adhjul Gugree Advani was jumping with glee -- after a few peurile Pokharan Patakhas -- even threatening the Pakistanis with the Nukes on Kashmir -- equally immature Nawaz Sharif had no choice but to explode a few crackers to pour some ice water down on Advani jee`s (now a Jinnah admirer) nucear erection....

...what else can one say bout these Cretins from that Iodine deficient subcontinent....the damn fools.

{{The ongoing widespread insurgency in Baluchistan}}

Why is this ``widespread`` insurgency concentrated in the Marri-Bugti areas only?

Respectfully sir, your article is littered with gross exaggerations that turn molehills into mountains. Let`s look at the bigger picture...

The blame for introducing nukes in South Asia lies at India`s door. Pakistan only started its nuclear progamme after India`s first Pokhran tests in 1974. Since India had violated Pakistan`s sovereignty only 3 years ago, Pakistani security concerns were justified. Yet the Americans threw the spanner in the French nuclear reactor deal. This is how America rewarded its loyal friend.

The greatness of a nation is measured by the challenges it overcomes to achieve its goal. The challenges to Pakistan`s nuclear programme were enormous. We had scant resources and faced stiff resistance from US-Israel-Europe. Yet we built a formidable nuclear program.

This is a great national achievement and must be celebrated. Nations that take pride in their achievements are more likely to repeat success in the future. This is the essence of national confidence. There are important lessons to be learnt from this achievement:

1- If a poor country like Pakistan can overcome enormous challenges to create a formidable nuclear program, then it can also develop a first-rate economy.

2- Despite their differences... the Army, politicians, Mullahs and bureaucracy are capable of working together like a team to achieve national goals e.g. dams, economic development, stable parliamentary democracy

3- Notwithstanding the requisite dissenters, the majority of Pakistanis value their national security and ideology (Islam) more than anything else.

Very good article.

``For Pakistan, the nuclear cost – political and social – has been even higher than for India``.

- a partisan understatement !

---

...``pre-bomb India could have attacked , post-bomb India dare not......``
Stupid arguments...if Pakistan focuses on nation/ instituition building, democracy, education and economic development why would India invade or attack Pakistan?


if you are obsessed with hostility against an economically, militarily bigger neighbhour at the expense of economic development you will end up being a loser. .....and that is exactly where you are.


and then the hypocrisy about ``unfortunately India has initiated arms race``........India is spending much smaller fraction of its GDP <3% than Paki or most other countries. If your delusions of grandeur / megalomania drive you to compete with India, why should India be responsible for this?

#8 by zeemax <<< ... and the good professor as usual leaves out explaining HOW `not` detonating would have helped Pakistan ! >>>

Allow me to answer this one if I may.

By sending a message to the Indians that we consider their detonation no more than a rat`s fart, and we don`t buy into this barbaric militarism that the US has forced upon the world and benefits from. It would have done wonders for Pakistan`s genuine independance from global forces impinging upon it. A lost opportunity that will not return.

#29 continued :

..... and oh, by the way, doctor hoodbhoy - as much as i love you - you are a party pooper !