Western powers should negotiate a nuclear deal with Pakistan similar to its accord with India as a way to reduce dangers from Islamabad, a prominent expert said today.
Mark Fitzpatrick, a longtime US diplomat who is now a scholar at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, voiced alarm about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal -- the world's fastest growing -- which he said would likely expand until at least 2020.
Fitzpatrick said no solution was ideal, but he called for Western nations to offer Pakistan a deal along the lines of a 2005 accord with India, which allowed normal access to commercial nuclear markets despite its refusal to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"The time has come to offer Pakistan a nuclear cooperation deal akin to India's," Fitzpatrick said as he launched a new book, "Overcoming Pakistan's Nuclear Dangers," in Washington.
"Providing a formula for nuclear normalization is the most powerful tool that Western countries can wield in positively shaping Pakistan's nuclear posture," Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick said that Pakistan faced a "heavier burden of proof" than India to demonstrate it is a responsible power, after the father of Islamabad's bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, spread the technology widely, and due to the presence of Islamic extremist groups.
Among conditions for a nuclear deal, Pakistan should stop blocking a new international agreement banning the production of fissile material and join the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, he said.
In the book, Fitzpatrick said the risk of a much-discussed scenario in which Islamic extremists seize nuclear weapons was exaggerated, and that the larger danger was that Pakistan-linked militants would launch a new attack inside India and trigger a devastating nuclear war.
