‘Pakistan needs to enhance N-capabilities for peaceful purposes’

Workshop on Youm-e-Takbeer discusses use of nuclear energy for power generation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan needs to enhance its nuclear capabilities for peaceful purposes, Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari said on Monday.

“Pakistan has achieved substantial gains in developing and utilising nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” she said at a workshop organised by the Strategic Studies Institute Islamabad to commemorate Youm-e-Takbeer.

In her keynote address at the workshop titled Nuclear Pakistan: Exploiting Nuclear Technology for Peaceful Purposes, Mazari called for exploring cooperation with other countries, including its neighbours.

She argued that it is pertinent to consider the peaceful uses of nuclear technology, which has the potential for contributing towards socio-economic development of Pakistan.

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission ex-chairman Dr Anser Pervaiz said that by conducting nuclear tests on May 28, 1998, Pakistan overtly demonstrated its nuclear capability to defend itself against any aggression from its eastern neighbour.

Dr Pervaiz highlighted Pakistan’s achievements in developing peaceful nuclear energy, which is being utilized in various sectors including, health, agriculture and industry. He noted that Pakistan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) has stringent regulations to ensure nuclear safety.

Dr Pervaiz noted that Pakistan established its first nuclear power plant in 1972, and called to focus greater attention on meeting the country’s energy needs through  nuclear energy production that is both cleaner and more cost efficient in the long term.

Arms Control and Disarmament Division Director General Muhammad Kamran Akhtar discussed the political aspects of peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Akhter argued that the current nuclear order has undermined the inalienable right to peaceful nuclear technology for some countries.

He argued that Pakistan was denied access to nuclear technology, whereas in 2008 the US signed a nuclear deal with India and pushed an exemption for India inside the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

This waiver puts Pakistan at a strategic disadvantage vis-a-vis India, as India can now keep the imported fuel under safeguards while diverting its indigenous nuclear fuel towards military purposes.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2019.