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Pakistan to seek deal similar to India's

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Anxiety in Pakistan; U.S. has been evasive on the subject

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday said it would seek a deal similar to the one the U.S. has made with India on civilian nuclear cooperation.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a news conference here that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf would take up the subject during his talks with U.S. President George Bush here on Saturday.

"It is a deal between Washington and New Delhi. We have no objection to it. Our case is that a similar package should be extended to Pakistan as well," Mr. Rashid said when reporters sought his comments on the deal sealed by India and the U.S.

However Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said Islamabad would prefer to wait for details of the agreement before giving its reaction on the subject.

The nuclear deal is a cause of concern for the establishment here. Since India and the United States signed the deal on the nuclear energy initiative in July 2005, Pakistan has been asking Washington to treat it on par with India. However the U.S. has been evasive on the subject.

In his interaction with a select group of Pakistani journalists in Washington last week Mr. Bush chose not answer specific questions on whether the U.S. is ready to extend the nuclear energy initiative to Pakistan.

Pakistan's case is like India it is a nuclear power and wants to harness nuclear technology to produce 8,800 mw of nuclear power in the next 25 years.

Chinese assistance

During his recent visit to China, Gen. Musharraf is believed to have talked about the possibility further Chinese assistance for nuclear power plants. There were speculations in a section of the media about negotiations between Beijing and Islamabad for seven to ten additional nuclear plants.

With little possibility of a nuclear deal with the U.S., Pakistan is banking on more trade concessions from the U.S. during the visit of Mr. Bush.

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