The recently concluded two-day nuclear safety summit, convened by President Barack Obama, has raised alarm against the possibility of nuclear terrorism, the most challenging threat and it emphasised the need for strong nuclear safety measures against such threats.
It is said to be the biggest summit ever held in Washington with the participation of 47 presidents, prime ministers and senior officials. It discussed other related issues also, ie nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and full support to IAEA. Four countries, namely Canada, Mexico, Ukraine and Chile pledged to eliminate their surplus weapon grade material or to hand them ever to the United States.
The summit has also recognised the right of every state to acquire nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. As far as Pakistan is concerned, it appears that its leadership is over satisfied with Obama's expression of confidence in Pakistan's command and control system. Availing of the opportunity, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani once again assured the world that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal was in the safe hands.
Though not said in so many words, people representing Pakistan in the summit, appeared pleased over being given the status of nuclear power. From a layman's point of view, and that also from the Third World, what is not being considered is that the cost of maintaining the nuclear arsenal. How much is spent on infrastructure, laboratories raw material, the means to deliver these weapons, maintenance and to keep them safe.
Some octogenarians amongst us may remember the days when the world mourned the dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, felt sorry and wept for the injured and maimed. To save the world from any such other destruction, devastation and genocide, the conscious people the world over initiated peace movement with the slogan 'Ban the Bomb'. Peace committees were formed in all countries of the world and almost in all the big cities. There was a peace committee in Karachi also, the late Pir Ilahi Bakhsh as its president.
These committees held big meetings as well as corner-meetings to educate people and create awareness among them. These committees not only arranged lectures and raised slogans, but also did some serious research work. Providing facts and figures as to how much natural and human resources were being wasted at the cost of people's bread, shelter, health, education and entertainment - Alas - that noble cause was sent into oblivion. Only some organisations, particularly from medical profession, do commemorate on August 6 every year the biggest tragedy in human history.
In today's world, the only state, which has used nuclear bombs against humanity, happen to be the only superpower and continues to resort to state terrorism, invaded Iraq on the false pretext to control its natural resources and destroyed Afghanistan to establish its hegemony. It uses such summit and other international institutions to isolate countries like Iran and Democratic Republic of North Korea.
Though the conscious people of the world are opposing hegemonic and oppressive policies of the ruling classes of various countries in the form of World Socialist Forum on world scale and in other forms on country level. They should once again take up the issue of nuclear disarmament, destruction of existing stockpile of all sorts of nuclear weapons/warheads, educate their rank and file and create awareness at grassroots level.
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