The Hindu : Front Page : “Pakistan is not vulnerable to extremist takeover”

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Sunday, Jan 27, 2008
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“Pakistan is not vulnerable to extremist takeover”

Nirupama Subramanian

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s nuclear establishment on Saturday ruled out an extremist takeover of the country. “There is no conceivable scenario, political or violent, in which Pakistan will fall to the extremists of the Al-Qaeda or the Taliban,” Lt. Gen. (retd.) Khalid Kidwai, Director-General, Strategic Plans Division (SPD), said here.

He also countered fears of an extremist takeover through the military, describing the Pakistan military as a modern force with a moderate outlook and a middle-class base with “vast exposure to the West.”

“This army is not something that will convert itself into an extremist takeover,” he said briefing foreign journalists based in Islamabad.

Command structure

Under the command and control structure that was put in place informally in 1999 and formalised in February 2000, Pakistan’s nuclear facilities are guarded by 10,000 troops.

A system of “overwatch” is meant to ensure that around 2,000 scientists performing the most sensitive tasks are monitored “from cradle to grave,” with checks on their politics, family, finances, their “weaknesses” and their state of mind.

People are retired within the system and appointed to informal positions to make sure that they do not stray into the outside world. Although it draws from Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, the SPD has its own dedicated intelligence network that provides it with hourly, 12-hourly and daily reports.

Aside from the A.Q. Khan proliferation network that pre-dated the establishment of the SPD and which it “smelt out” immediately after being set up in 1999, there were “two or three other minor incidents,” the SPD chief admitted.

One of the incidents had to do with two scientists who had gone to Kandahar in 2001 and “in the process there was an interaction with Osama bin Laden.” Lt. Gen Kidwai said the two were detained for three months and put through lie-detector tests, and were “eventually cleared.” He said the scientists were not from weapons-making facilities.

In another incident, an employee who made an anti-Musharraf speech at a mosque was asked to quit the next day.

U.S. concern

Concerns in the United States that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of the Al-Qaeda have been accompanied by statements from politicians, especially candidates in the upcoming presidential election, that the Bush Administration should move to secure Pakistan’s nuclear assets. Reports have suggested that the Pentagon is drawing up contingency plans for this.

Lt. Gen Kidwai described this “as a very dangerous game” that could have consequences for the entire world, and said the Pakistan military, as a professional force, was capable of thwarting the U.S. if it carried out such a plan.

“All professional militaries make their own contingency plans, and we have ours.”

“Deterrent”

Lt. Gen Kidwai emphasised that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons were meant as a deterrent, and expressed the hope that they would never have to be used. Pakistan had a first-strike capability, he said. The only scenario he envisaged the employment of the weapons was in the event of severe “space losses” or “land forces” during an India-Pakistan war.

In such a scenario, the National Command Authority, headed by the President, would be the decision maker, “hopefully by consensus or at least a majority.” It would transmit the decision to the SPD, after which it would flow down through the military chain of command.

For assurance, he said the decision could be aborted until the last few seconds. The NCA would retain control over the weapons until a few seconds prior to their being used through a 12-figure alpha numerical code, without which the device would be a “dud,” he said.

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