Islamabad March 22, 2011
Dr. Javed Laghari, chairman of the Higher Education Commission and patron-in-charge of the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute, said that any discriminatory waiver would only increase the asymmetry of fissile material stockpiles in South Asia, which not only goes against Pakistan’s security interest but could very easily push the region into a nuclear arms race which is neither desirable nor helpful.
He was inaugurating the three-day International Conference 2011 on ‘Fissile Material Treaty (FMT): Possibility and Prospects’ organised by the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) here on Sunday night. Maria Sultan, director-general of SASSI, conducted the proceedings.
Dr. Laghari hoped that the conference would justify the need for consensus to start negotiations on FMT, which were central to international non-proliferation and arms disarmament measures and keeping the effectiveness of the Conference of Disarmament (CD) as the custodian of the multilateralism in international arms control negotiations. He said that the CD at this moment was facing a deadlock. He lamented that a new trend of selectivity based on commercial interests was developing which would increase the possibility of proliferation without the fear of costs.
