Our Nuclear Command & Control System is Very strong and its safety is approved by IAEA

In a long diplomatic career of thirty-six years, from 1970 to 2006, he served at the United Nations, both in New York and Vienna, and in Washington D.C, London, Paris and Brussels. In the course of professional work, he delivered lectures and speeches on various current affairs issues in many institutions. During the tenure of assignments abroad, he interacted closely with think-tanks of many countries, in the West as well as in other countries of the region.

After serving as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Austria and the IAEA, he returned to Pakistan in 2006 and was appointed as Member (Chairman’s Advisory Council) in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). There he functioned as Adviser to the Chairman PAEC on International Affairs, with particular focus on  IAEA matters till July 2009.

Current Work:

He established the Centre for International Strategic Studies (CISS) in October 2010, as an independent and autonomous think-tank for research and analysis of current regional and international strategic issues from a Pakistani perspective, to contribute to the national and international discourse, and thus create greater understanding between Pakistan and other countries. Presently, he is serving as the founding Executive Director of the Centre.

Other Engagements:

He is serving as Distinguished Visiting Fellow (DVF) in the National Defence University, Islamabad since August 2010. He is associated with South Asia Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) as Senior Associate Fellow since November 2009. Moreover, he is also appointed as an Expert on the Technical Committee of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies (DSS) of the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad in April 2009.

Jahangir’s World Times (JWT): Nowadays ‘Memogate’ scandal is in limelight. Do you think that whenever non-career diplomats are inducted as ambassador, the crisis like ‘Memogate’ happens?

Ali Sarwar Naqvi (ASN): Yes, if there had been a career diplomat at the place of Mr Hussain Haqani, this crisis would not have happened. In fact, a career diplomat makes all communications on the behalf of the government of Pakistan and his actions are in the notice of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Moreover, all the communications which are issued by the ambassador must go through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; he cannot act or communicate on his own. So, in the Memo issue we do not know the exact reality whether Mr Hussain Haqani was the author of this Memo or not. But, if he was, then the failure on his part is that he did not seek any permission for the issuance of such Memo while a career diplomat cannot do any thing like this without the approval of the government. In my opinion one of the reasons of occurrence of Memo scandal is that the ambassador was not a career diplomat.

JWT: What is your assessment about the allegations on ‘Qadeer Khan Network’ vis-à-vis nuclear proliferation of the world?

ASN: Well, the ‘Qadeer Khan Network’ was found involved in carrying out clandestine or illegal transfer of nuclear technology and material from certain places to some other specific places. Now in the first place it was not necessarily an initiative or trade taking place from Pakistan as such. For the reason that this network was, of course, headed by Abdul Qadeer khan, who is a Pakistani scientist, but this network had a factory in Malaysia and warehouses in Dubai, and there were at least thirty nationalities involved in the network. Additionally, in this connection a whole ship-load, which was carrying nuclear centrifuges and equipments, was caught outside the port of Dubai by International Customs. I was ambassador to the IAEA at that time. I have personally seen that evidences in Vienna which show that these allegations were correct. Indeed, it was a tough time for us when this crisis took place, and I had faced this problem in the International community. But I was able to persuade the members of the boards of governors of IAEA that Pakistan’s name should not be mentioned. Actually, the people who were working for the Qadeer Khan Network belonged to different countries including Malaysia, Spain, Italy, Siri Lanka, South Africa, hence, it was not just a Pakistani network. However, since it was headed by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan so, we took action against him and we dismantled the network. While the other countries (30-countries) whose nationals were involved, had not taken any noticeable action in this regard.

JWT: What major setback Pakistan’s nuclear programme had to face because of this network?

ASN:  In my opinion the major setback for Pakistan’s Nuclear Programme was that many countries felt that all types of illegal trafficking and clandestine shipments were taking place from Pakistan. Therefore, one of the most harmful effect of this crisis on us was that we had not been considered for a ‘Civilian-Nuclear Deal’  like India.

JWT: What are your recommendations for future strengthening of Pakistan’s export control regime?

ASN: As far as our exports control regime is concerned, I would like to say it is quite strict now. The Nuclear Arms Control Act of 2004 is a very comprehensive document and it has mended all of its loopholes. Furthermore, we have the Nuclear Export Oversight Board which has been created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and they are in close cooperation with our custom authorities. Therefore, there is no scope for any clandestine shipment or trafficking.

JWT: As an expert on nuclear diplomacy, what do you think whether our Nuclear Command & Control System is able to get world level recognition for strict nuclear controls?

ASN: Well, the US officials have particularly said that Pakistan’s Command & Control System is very strong and the Director General of IAEA Muhammad Albradey also said in September 2005 that he was fully satisfied with the Pakistan’s Nuclear Command & Control System.

JWT: What are the impacts of Indo-US Civilian-Nuclear Deal on the security of Pakistan?

ASN: As such there are not any sort of negative effects on security of Pakistan because it is a Civilian-Nuclear Deal through which Indians are getting nuclear fuel for their power plants from United States. However, worry for us is the fact that they can obtain nuclear fuel as well as industrial installations from abroad which they can utilize for the enrichment of Uranium which can be further used for the development of nuclear weapons. So, this is how they can develop more weapons which can be dangerous for Pakistan.