Pak ready for Fissile Material Treaty with India

Pakistan on Monday said it was willing to take part in any "constructive" dialogue with India to work out a Fissile Material Treaty under the current round of Composite Dialogue process. "We have proposed to India a strategic restraint regime.

We have not had a response to that. Some elements of the SRR have been discussed in the past. We are also willing to participate constructively in the negotiations on Fissile Material Treaty if and when the negotiations start in the Composite Dialogue process," Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told reporters in Islamabad.

The two countries have discussed different initiatives on nuclear and conventional weapons under the category of confidence building measures and peace and security pact under the constructive dialogue process, which has entered its third round.

To another question, Aslam said Pakistan's criticism of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, days after it was reached during President George W Bush visit, was not "an exercise in damage control."

"Even before the deal was signed we said we would like the US to adopt a package approach because Pakistan has also energy requirements. We gave our detailed reaction after learning the details of the agreement. Our concern was heightened by the fact that there were certain provisions in the agreement that could have some implications for strategic stability in this region," she said.

The spokesman said Islamabad considers the deal "discriminatory" as both Pakistan and India are nuclear weapon states which are not part of the non proliferation treaty.

"Instead of making an exception for one it would have been better for the US to work out a package deal that would take care of energy requirements of the two countries," she said adding the deal would "upset" the strategic stability in the region and should have taken into account non-proliferation efforts.

Aslam said Pakistan took time to react to the deal as the details were different from what Islamabad expected.

"We were told that such a deal was on the cards. Initial information about what this deal looks like was different from what has come out finally," she said.

On Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to India, she said Pakistan was not "unduly worried" about it. "Why should relations between two countries worry us? Not at all. We have our own ties with Afghanistan which are totally unique. There is absolutely no reason to worry."

Asked about the Interpol notice against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, she said it was "...not worth commenting on the proclivity of some fingers being raised at Pakistan every time something goes wrong."