WASHINGTON – The US government has added seven Pakistani firms to a list offoreign entities that pose a “significant risk” to its national securityand interests by allegedly engaging in nuclear trade.
However experts and Analysts have said that these are not sanctions andmere a more check on these companies which are from private sector andnothing to do with government.
It will not dent Islamabad’s bid to join the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group(NSG).
A total of 23 entities were added to the list that was published in the USFederal Register last week by the country’s Bureau of Industry and Security(BIS). Besides the Pakistani firms, the list includes 15 entities fromSouth Sudan and one from Singapore.
The list prepared by the US BIS has declared that all seven Pakistani firmsare “reasonably believed to be involved, or to pose a significant risk ofbeing or becoming involved, in activities contrary to the national securityor foreign policy interests of the United States”.
Now all 23 entities face export control measures, which could prevent themfrom international trade.
Among the seven Pakistani companies, three are listed for “theirinvolvement in the proliferation of unsafeguarded nuclear activities thatare contrary to the national security and/or foreign policy interests ofthe US”.
Two are accused of procuring supplies for nuclear-related entities alreadyon the list and the remaining two are accused of acting as fronts forlisted entities. An eighth Pakistani entity is based in Singapore.
The End-user Review Committee (ERC) of the US Department of Commercedetermined that Mushko Logistics Pvt Ltd, Singapore, and Mushko ElectronicsPvt Ltd, Pakistan, should be added to the list on the grounds that theyprocured items for several Pakistani entities on the entity list.
So far Pakistan authorities have not commented on the US move to sanctionthe companies.
The ERC determined that Solutions Engineering, Pakistan should be added tothe list based on its involvement in activities contrary to US nationalsecurity and foreign policy interests. Specifically, the ERC determinedthat this entity has been involved in the procurement of US-origin items onbehalf of nuclear-related entities in Pakistan that are already on the ERClist.
For the remaining five Pakistani entities, the ERC determined that three ofthe entities, Akhtar & Munir, Proficient Engineers and Pervaiz CommercialTrading Co (PCTC), be added based for their “involvement in theproliferation of unsafeguarded nuclear activities that are contrary to thenational security and/or foreign policy interests of the US”.