Islamic Nuclear Programme.

Islamic Nuclear Programme.

During 1979 Iraq launched a nuclear weapons programme of its own. Although Iraq has signed the Non-proliferation Treaty, the Iraqis were reported to have bought a swimming pool reactor from France which would have enabled them to produce weapons-grade plutonium. However on 12th April 1979 the equipment for that reactor while stored in a ware house in a southern French port awaiting shipment was mysteriously blown up presumably by Israeli Agents.

Like Iraq Pakistan attempt to get a nuclear reprocessing plant from France for chemical separation of plutonium from spent fuel has been temporarily halted and it has come to light that Pakistan had also been buying components for a uranium enrichment facility. It may be also looking for clandestine means to acquire fissile material by sale or theft, so that it could be readily fabricated by Pakistan scientists in some kind of a crude explosive device.

Pakistan’s Islamic Bomb will have the following repercussions:-

1. Israel would be deterred from carrying out a full scale invasion and occupation of Arab countries.
2. A Nuclear reprisal by Israel to concerted Arab offensive would also be deterred.
3. Oil rich Arab states armed with nuclear weapons would be able to withstand American and other external threats and pressures.
4. The possibility of sub-national organizations like the Palestine Liberation Organization [P.L.O.] getting access to Islamic nuclear devices might create enormous uncertainty in the minds of Israelis which of course, would be advantage to the overall Arab cause.
5. A Pakistan nuclear weapons would not only deter India from considering a conventional attack on Pakistan, but it might even deter India from taking any retaliatory conventional action against Pakistan’s offensive moves, for instance in “Kashmir”.
6. Nuclearisation of Islam would strengthen the Islamic solidarity of Muslim populations all over the world, whether they are in Soviet, Central Asia, and Sin kiang, in the Indian sub-continent or elsewhere.

Pakistan has for long been considered a potential nuclear weapon power, and policy wise, it has kept out of not only the Non-proliferation Treaty, but also the partial test ban Treaty. As was to be expected, Pakistan always created an image of having linked its nuclear policy with that of India. It was easy for Pakistan leadership to convince the western world that for them keeping the option open was a justifiable reaction to India’s nuclear policy. For the United States and its allies this Pakistan reaction became a convenient leverage to apply pressure on India. The advocates of the Non-proliferation Treaty felt that if India were restrained both India and Pakistan would remain non-nuclear military powers.

[Islamic Nuclear programme will continue]

Pakistan’s Nuclear Programme.

Pakistan’s Nuclear Programme.

Pakistan-Arab countries ambition was to build a nuclear bomb for Islam. A number of intelligence agencies had known about this for years, but first time that the Indian public heard about this development was taken when former foreign Minister Vajpayee quietly revealed in the Lok Sabha in March 1979 that India has verified through independent sources of its own that the Pakistan nuclear programme had acquired “non-peaceful” dimensions.

The Arabs had adequate money. On the conventions front there was no problem in acquiring sophisticated weapons from the west, since the west was only too eager to recycle some of the mounting reserves of petro-dollars by selling back arms.

Two developments turned this dream into a foreseeable reality. One was the emergence of Zulifikar Ali Bhutto, the Pakistan leader, as a champion of the Islamic cause. It could not have been difficult for the flamboyant Bhutto to convince the leaders of the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia and Libya, that it was possible to develop an Islamic nuclear option. Secondly the Pakistan civilian nuclear programme had by then reached such a level of sophistication that it was possible for Pakistan scientists, with the facilities available to them, to embark on a weapons programme, if only it could be supported financially by the oil rich Arab countries.

There is no direct evidence of either Saudi Arabia or Libya or any other Arab country having actively collaborated with Pakistan on the nuclear project, in any case they posses neither the man power nor the industrial infrastructure to participate directly in a nuclear weapons programme.

However, Saudi Arabia and Libya have been the major financial supporters of Pakistan in this venture. Both countries have a common though nor necessarily a shared interest in nuclearising the Arab world.

The other major development which nurtured the idea of an Islamic bomb was the global proliferation of nuclear technology, materials and components. Most of the components for the fabrication of fissile material are now available in the open market, thanks to the loopholes in the Non Proliferation Treaty in which the sponsors, the nuclear weapon powers exempted themselves from all nuclear safeguards. Pakistan thro its nuclear scientists abroad and its convert industrial connections, and the Arab through their oil and money connections have considerable leverage in the European nuclear markets to get access to the required materials.


[Pakistan’s Nuclear Programme will continue]