ISLAMABAD – FOREIGN Office has cautioned the United States about castingaspersion on its non-proliferation credentials following reports thatWashington has imposed sanctions on seven Pakistani companies oversuspicion they have links to the nuclear trade.
Though the listing is a routine exercise of adding and removing entitiesfrom the US maintained list but Pakistan’s detractors are using thedevelopment to cast doubts about country’s non-proliferation credentials.
No one knows better than the United States about Pakistan’s efforts in thearea of export controls and non-proliferation as well as nuclear safety andsecurity because the two countries have not been engaged in regular talkson the subject but also have active cooperation.The United States has extended support to Pakistan in upgrading therelevant procedures, systems and Washington as well as other members of theinternational community including International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)have been expressing complete satisfaction over measures adopted byPakistan in this regard. Pakistan has always been willing to extendguarantees regarding non-diversion through end-user assurances as well asarrangements for post-shipment verifications.
Under these circumstances, there is absolutely no justification to subjectprivate or public sector entities of Pakistan to undue restrictions andsanctions that could harm the country’s march on the road to progress andprosperity.
It is highly lamentable that on the one hand, the United States and severalother developed countries are providing to India all types of technologyand equipment including sensitive one that could be used for development ofnuclear weapons but on the other hand the United States is restrictingPakistan access to dual use technology that has many industrialapplications.
This double standard is one of the major causes of friction between the twocountries and needs to be avoided. The latest move comes at a time when thetwo countries are engaged in formal and informal talks to sort outirritants and understandably this would complicate the situation further.
Apart from Pakistan’s willingness to extend necessary guarantees tosuppliers it has also installed, with the US cooperation, a moderncontainer scanner system at Karachi port that can detect suspicious items.Therefore, the United States should stop pressurising Pakistan on thepretext of safety and security of its nuclear assets as well as so-callednuclear trade.