NEW DELHI: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said though his country had acquired nuclear capability, it had not actually manufactured nuclear weapons.
“It is true that Pakistan has acquired nuclear capability, There 1s no reason for us to hide this from anyone. But we have taken a conscious decision that Pakistan would not make nuclear weapons and we have struck 10 this decision,” he said in an interview to the Cable News Network (CNN).
He said both India and Pakistan could not afford to keep the tension between the two countries at this high saying it was time “we must defuse the tension and resolve all differences and outstanding issues.”
Taken the meager resources of the two Countries with a billion people living under poverty line, the two countries could not afford a nuclear or arms race, he said.
He said Kashmir was a key issue and it had to be addressed before any other issue could be taken up.
Pakistan stopped getting American military and economic aid in November 1990 because the then US President George Bush could not certify that Pakistan was not engaged in making nuclear bombs. Subsequent evidence said that Pakistan had already made the bomb.
Former Prime Minister Panazir Bhutto added another dimension to the bomb controversy late last year when she disclosed in a TV interview that as Prime Minister she was kept in the dark about Paksitan’s nuclear program. This widely criticized statement raised questions about Nawaz Sharif’s own awareness about his country’s plan.
Amid the controversy about Ms. Bhutto’s statement, former Army Chief Gen Aslam Beg said Pakistan’s nuclear program was not under the army’s control. It surprised those who know it for sure that the clandestine nuclear weapon program has been under the exclusive control of the army right from the beginning. Anyhow, the moot question is who in Pakistan is the right authority to reply queries on its nuclear program?
Article extracted from this publication >> February 5, 1993
