 ISLAMABAD - Stung by US President George BushÂ’s refusal to grant access to American nuclear know-how, Pakistan accused the United States of discriminating against it and of upsetting the balance of power in South Asia.
Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told the Senate, the upper house of parliament, late on Monday, that any deal to supply technology for civilian nuclear power programmes for its rival India should also available to Pakistan. “Pakistan will not accept any discriminatory treatment,” Kasuri told the upper house. “The US must have a package approach while dealing with India and Pakistan.”
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On Tuesday, at a seminar in Islamabad, Pakistani defence analysts aired fears that the U.S.-India deal would sway the balance of power in South Asia even further in India’s favour. “This imbalance now gets even worse as a consequence of America’s total and all out support to India,” said Talat Masood, a former general turned political analyst.
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Visiting Pakistan last week at Bush’s behest, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman gave Pakistani officials short shrift when they floated ideas of creating “nuclear parks” for US companies to develop nuclear energy plants.
Despite being told to forget about any deal, Pakistani officialsÂ’ protestations have become louder in recent days, possibly encouraged, analysts say, by the strong criticism Bush encountered at home over the concession to India, a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Pakistan, though a key ally of the United States in a global war on terrorism, remains under a cloud due to the role played by its top scientist in a nuclear black market scandal.
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The Pakistani militaryÂ’s past support for Islamist militant groups, some of which latterly forged links with al Qaeda, also does not help PakistanÂ’s case, analysts say.
Compared with IndiaÂ’s robust democracy, Pakistan has repeatedly switched between civilian and military rule making it hard to predict what kind of government if any will follow in the post-Musharraf era, analysts said.
The United States meantime has engaged India, seeing opportunities in its growing economic power, and, according to analysts, its potential as regional counterweight to China.
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