Pak wants India-like N-deal, US not ready

Pakistan is making frantic efforts to conclude a civil nuclear accord with the US, on the lines of the landmark Indo-US N-deal, to overcome its crippling energy crisis, but Washington refuses to oblige, ostensibly due to the trust deficit between the two nations on the issue of nuclear proliferation.

Foreign office sources said the US was pressuring Pakistan to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

The sources confirmed Islamabad held up resumption of nuclear arms control negotiations at the UN conference on disarmament on August 10, 2009, seeking to reopen an earlier work plan agreed upon by the main nuclear powers.

In fact, Pakistan has officially protested the Indo-US deal in the past. However, it faced a dilemma.

It could either go all out and oppose the deal or demand a similar pact, in which case it could not use the proliferation argument to oppose the Indian agreement.

In reality, it happily let US opponents of proliferation slam the deal while lobbying for itself. Privately, everyone in Islamabad had realised it could not stop the Indian deal.

Even today, some elements in Pakistan are trying to paint a bleak picture of what India can get out of the deal. According to leading newspaper Daily Times, the fact is that the advantage of the Indo-US deal to India is not that it will be able to make more bombs or become energy-efficient.

“It already has enough bombs to deter Pakistan and the deal is unlikely to address its energy needs beyond 10% to 12%,” says the Daily Times.

“The advantage is that America and with it Russia, France and Australia had accepted India’s rising status as a partner state and gone extra miles to accommodate its nuclear status legally outside NPT. That is where the rub lies for the decision-makers in Islamabad. When the decision-makers in the White House say Pakistan could not get a similar deal, they actually refer to how Pakistan is looked at despite being an American ally in the war on terror. Washington knows Pakistan is allied with it not because it accepts the current global status quo but because it cannot break free of it presently.

India, on the other hand, has accepted the global architecture and gone to work on enhancing its status within it,” the paper says.

"When decision-makers in the White House say Pakistan could not get a similar deal, they refer to how Pakistan is looked at despite being an American ally in the war on terror. US knows Pakistan is allied with it not because it accepts the current global status quo but because it cannot break free of it presently. India, on the other hand, has accepted the global architecture and gone to work on enhancing its status within it.”
— Daily Times, Pakistan