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Pak N-programme received boost during Reagan years

Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme received its most crucial boost from the Reagan administration's Soviet policy, in which Islamabad had greater importance than the United States' commitment to non-proliferation during the 1980s.

Aur, an Urdu monthly in Islamabad, has published a long article in its current issue tracing the history of Pakistan's nuclear ambitions right from the 1960s when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as the then energy minister in Ayub Khan's cabinet had favoured nuclear power for the country. His cabinet colleagues did not much agree with him, but he kept on working on this scheme.

The article, written by Javed Choudhry, is mainly based on what has appeared in many Western books and journals. The author, however, fills up many gaps and provides additional information from his own sources.

Three points emerge from his article:
1. Pakistan's nuclear capability is based on stolen knowledge and smuggled material;
2. China has been an important supporter of its nuclear programme; and,
3. the major support came from American connivance.

There is a fourth point hinting that both Bhutto and General Zia-ul Haq suffered unnatural deaths because of their nuclear pursuits.

The title of the article is suggestive: 'From Where Did Pakistan Steal Its Nuclear Plant? A 30-Year Secret in the Eyes of the CIA and All Big Intelligence Agencies in the World'. The author then collages published reports about how Pakistan stole nuclear secrets.

The Americans opposed Pakistan's acquisition of a nuclear reprocessing plant from France during 1970s and even threatened Bhutto with grave consequences. When he did not succumb to this threat, he had to face an uprising from the Opposition. He was thrown out of power and subsequently hanged.

However, when Ronald Reagan became US president, he cultivated Pakistan to deal with challenges in Iran and Afghanistan. He gave Islamabad 40 F-16 planes and 3.2 billion, six-year package of assistance. From here, a new chapter of the story of Pakistan's nuclear plant starts," he writes. The US also exempted Pakistan from its non-proliferation laws for six years.

Pakistan, on the other hand, told the American critics of its nuclear programme that a threat of nuclear bomb was necessary to keep Russia's movement in Afghanistan restricted, otherwise it would use India to put pressure on it (Pakistan).

Members of the Reagan administration privately confessed that US aid to Pakistan would help it become a nuclear power, yet the aid continued throughout the 1980s, writes Aur.

The US administration had the knowledge that China was helping the clandestine Kahuta nuclear plant and had even given Pakistan the latest atom design. The administration was also aware that Pakistan was trying to get necessary material smuggled to Kahuta from the United states and other European countries.

But Pakistani leaders, including Zia, kept saying they were not making the bomb. They stoutly claimed they were upgrading uranium to five per cent enrichment only while in fact they were doing it 90 per cent for making a bomb.

In July 1985, Reagan met Zia in New York, but did not complain about Pakistan's nuclear designs because he did not want to annoy Islamabad at a time when the United States was winning the Afghan war.

Aur writes that US bowed before Pakistan because of its importance in Afghanistan and other developments in the region. Thus, Pakistan got a quiet nudge from the US to enrich the uranium to the bomb level.

Pakistan had now crossed the 'red line' and by July 1986, the Reagan administration was convinced that Pakistan had made the bomb. But before the US could take punitive action against Islamabad, the war in Afghanistan escalated. Reagan certified that Pakistan had no bomb.

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