 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
|
 |
| Ten years on |
|
|
|
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
It has now been a decade since Pakistan carried out its nuclear tests in the hills of Chaghai in Balochistan. That event, ten years ago, the anniversary of which we mark today, has been presented as a source of national pride and prestige. The scientists involved in developing nuclear technology have been hailed as heroes, the house arrest of one of them, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, has been a source of immense controversy and many ordinary Pakistanis take pride in the fact that their nation possesses nuclear weapons.
But we need also to ask ourselves whether this is really a matter of pride in a situation where one-third of people live in poverty, nearly 50 per cent according to the latest UNESCO figures are illiterate and millions of children die each year from waterborne diseases. True achievement would, after all, lie in bettering the condition of these people and improving social indicators that now place Pakistan near bottom place in South Asia in terms of its ability to deliver healthcare, education and other basic needs to its people.
There is also much about Pakistan's nuclear weapons that has not been openly discussed. Few people seem to be conscious of the effects these weapons would bring, in terms of radioactive poisoning and human destruction. The terrible images from the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only sites that suffered the dropping of atomic bombs, are not in wide circulation. The immorality of nuclear weapons and the fact that, in real terms, they are virtually unusable given that if this were ever to happen India would unleash its arsenal on us too, is not often debated. We have not even been told about the impact of the May 1998 tests in areas around Chaghai, although anecdotal evidence suggests an adverse effect on livestock. The issue of the dumping of radioactive waste, which surfaced two years ago from Dera Ghazi Khan, has quickly been buried once more.
Matters regarding the safety of nuclear devices and their basic morality need today to be discussed. Greater awareness is required. People need to know of the accidents involving nuclear weapons that have taken place elsewhere in the world and of the risks of such an event. Nuclear weapons are in many ways terrible devices. This holds true whether they are installed in Pakistan, or India or the US. By imposing sanctions against Pakistan after the 1998 tests and attacking the country's nuclear programme, the west showed extreme hypocrisy. There is no reason why different standards should be applied to the US, which retains the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and different ones to Pakistan. These weapons bring risks wherever they are located in the world, and Pakistan today, as a nuclear-empowered state, must consider what its stance should be regarding the presence of weapons that can cause such immense destruction and human suffering in our midst.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
