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Pakistan downplays nuclear report

Nirupama Subramanian

Islamabad expanding facility: U.S. newspaper

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Foreign Ministry on Monday declined to comment on specific programmes at the Khushab nuclear weapons facility but did not deny a Washington Post report that it was expanding the facility.

"What [the report] basically says is that Pakistan has a nuclear weapons programme and a nuclear facility in Khushab. This ought to be no revelation to anyone, because Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state. I have no specific comments on Pakistan's facilities, the details of the facilities and programmes in the centre," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said at a briefing.

Ms. Aslam confirmed that the facility at Khushab was not under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.

Downplaying the Post report, the spokesperson said she did not know "what was the need for this article" when the Khushab facility was a well-known nuclear weapons facility, and as the report also acknowledged as much.

"Its co-ordinates are exchanged even with India under the 1988 agreement about ongoing nuclear facilities and installations," she said.

Khushab is 100 km north of Faisalabad in Punjab province.

Asked if the reported expansion of the facility would lead to an arms race in the sub-continent, she said Pakistan did not want such a situation.

"We do not want nuclear or conventional arms race in the region. We were not the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the region. We were not the first to test nuclear weapons in this region," she said.

Ms. Aslam raised the spectre of a nuclear war when asked to comment on unidentified media reports that India was considering the option of hot pursuit of alleged terrorist suspects and camps in Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai blasts. "I don't think any names have been mentioned, who is exactly saying that? But even if these are some media reports or some sources, it is highly irresponsible. Do they want a nuclear war in this region, a holocaust?"

Hot pursuit

She said, "nobody should make this mistake that Pakistan would allow hot pursuit inside its territory or in Azad Kashmir".

Recalling the massing of troops on the border by both sides in 2001-2002, she said, "ultimately we had to return to the table to negotiate".

"And that is the option we have before us. What we want is pursuit of peace, we want the peace process to start, resume and we are willing to discuss all issues," she said.

Islamabad was still awaiting dates from India for the Foreign Secretaries review of the composite dialogue process, Ms. Aslam said. India postponed the talks, which were scheduled for July 21, after the Mumbai blasts. No meeting between the two officials had been scheduled during the SAARC Foreign Secretaries' meeting in Dhaka this month-end, but if both attended, "they would naturally be interacting", Ms. Aslam said.

She said while the Pakistan Foreign Secretary would attend the Dhaka meet, she did not know if his Indian counterpart would be present.

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