KARACHI:
In a milestone development, the first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), finally came into force on January 22. It prohibits the use, threat of use, development, production, testing and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. UN Secretary General Antonio Gutérres welcomed the accord as “an important step towards a world free of nukes” and hoped that nations would ratify and adhere to it in letter and in spirit.
Given our horrific past of using nukes — the vile suffering that poison gas inflicted on the soldiers of WWI and the nuclear blasts decimated Nagasaki and Hiroshima — this momentous day is nothing short of a victory for humanity in today’s arms race. The world’s nine nuclear-armed states have more than 13,000 nukes, with command and control networks vulnerable to human error and cyberattacks.
Although TPNW is a moral and legal starting point for a long-term effort to achieve nuclear disarmament, the real celebration will come when our planet is free of those 13,000 nukes altogether. For this to happen, all nations must work to ensure the broadest possible adherence to the treaty’s prohibitions.
Zahid Ali Zohri
G-B
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2021.
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