American media campaign

The American media is continuing its campaign, presumably on the Obama Administration’s instructions, against Pakistan’s nuclear programme, as well as its institutions. There is a report in The Washington Post about the nuclear programme, throwing the old aspersions about Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan having helped the North Korean nuclear programme, and of the North Koreans having paid multimillion-dollar sums to various Pakistani officials for the technology. Though the report mentions the denials by Dr Khan and other officials, it does not give them credence, and went ahead with the report. While this attack on Pakistan’s nuclear programme goes on, The New York Times is busy editorialising that the government should retire the DG ISI, and should get opposition support for this, in a transparent attempt to force the political government into a clash with the military.
The Post report has come at a time when Pakistan is under US pressure, which has been mounting ever since the Abbottabad raid last month. It is noticeable that when there is a problem in the relationship, the US media has handily available some report which will once again raises fears about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. The next thing to be expected is a report, or a series of reports, about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. The subtext of these reports will be the need to make this arsenal ineffective. As the only possible target of this arsenal would be India, it is no difficult leap of logic to conclude that the sentiment against Pakistani nuclear weapons has been fuelled by the Indian lobby, which is both strong and well-heeled, in the USA. It must be remembered that India has a particular distaste for Pakistan’s having the Bomb which has rankled with it ever since it began its weapons programme and it rankles them further that A.Q. Khan is on Pakistan’s side. This is yet another fruitless attempt to smear the reputation of distinguished Pakistanis.