by Feroz Hassan Khan
Pakistan is passing through an extremely delicate phase in its history. Recent instability in Pakistan, including the Taliban's advance into settled areas, prompted the Pakistani military to undertake large-scale military operations in the Swat Valley. As military and Taliban forces fight in the rugged tribal terrain, several Western analysts have raised concerns about the future of nuclear Pakistan.
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Nuclear Security in Pakistan: Separating Myth From Reality
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With all respect due him, and recognizing that there is value in the article, author Gen. FH Kahn's former title (director of arms control and disarmament affairs) was military disinfo. The nuclear disinfo brief covered a period when Pakistani N-weapons material was being sold and traded to N. Korea and Libya, with no honest intention of disarmament, using IRP military transport.
The general asks us to trust proven proliferators to watch the empty coop, because they act even worse when they feel they are not trusted?
Pakistan's military may be its most durable institution. But that is not the same as stable and domestically trustworthy, as the coup and purge that broke off Bangladesh, sponsorship of the Taliban gov't and disastrous adventures with Taliban and Al Q'aeda in Kashmir have shown. The IRP military budget has always lacked civilian oversight. Its failed operations and arms purchases have come at a horrendous cost in basic water, food and education needs for Pakistanis. IRP's general's are securing their own institution, overseeing a nuclear national security state, at the cost of freedom and development for the people they rule. To maintain political control, the military has long funded and sponsored intolerant religious parties, equating patriotism with revenge against the Hindus, since the time of partition.
Until the military security state which controls Pakistans HEU production and N-arms export potential has shown regard for their own civilians, they have no real case in claiming a right to trust from the international community.
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