'Pakistan's application for NSG membership based on merit, sound capabilities'

Pakistan's application for getting membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is based on merit and sound capabilities and Pakistan looks forward for a positive response from the international civil nuclear co-operation, said Zafar Ali, Director General Strategic Export Control Division (SECD).
Speaking at an in-house talk on "Export Control Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG): Decline to High Tech Trade," organised by the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) here on Wednesday, he said that Pakistan's Export Control Regime is based on administrative, legislative and regulatory measures.
Expanding on the steps taken by Pakistan, Dr Zafar stated that the Pakistani control lists have been published since 2005 and have been notified and reviewed for three times up till now and it is a continuous process. He pointed out that Pakistan has declared its adherence to the principles of the NSG and is willing to showcase all its work; hence a criteria-based approach is necessary.
In 2016, he said Pakistan has issued its policy guidelines which are in line with the policy guidelines of NSG, Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and the Australia Group. "In certain cases our guidelines are even stringent and stricter than the international nuclear export control regime...we lay specific stress on enhancing the capacity of our enforcement people," he said.
He stated this with confidence that the SECD's outreach and capacity building programme has been matured over the period and its trainers are now acting as resource persons or trainers to impart training to other countries that are still developing their strategic export control.
He said that the Commodity Identification Training (CIT) has been institutionalised for further strengthening the export control enforcement. He further said that Pakistan is working on national detection architecture and considerable efforts have been made with intra agency process and collaboration. "Our application on NSG is based on merit and sound capabilities. So, Pakistan looks forward for a positive response from the international civil nuclear co-operation," he added.
He further pointed out that so far two important reports by Project Alpha were made related to Pakistan and none of the report confirms engagement between Pakistan and North Korea. The key assertions made in the talk were that Pakistan aims to build a co-operative trade connection with the US and that Pakistan fulfils the NSG criteria and by broadening the base on entities listed in the sanctions list will hamper the possibility of trade and development in Pakistan.
Highlighting the policy of nuclear apartheid by the outgoing US administration, Dr Maria Sultan, Director General SASSI, emphasised on Pakistan's Strategic Nuclear and Missile Industries and Project Alpha. In her presentation on 'Project Alpha' by Kings College London, she explained that the impacts of the project on the future of high tech trade and the possibilities of using this project to affect US entities lists and export control understandings.
She said that the project Alpha's reports on 'Pakistan's Strategic Nuclear and Missile Industries' is a key resource which comprises the US and UK open source and intelligence resources on Pakistan's nuclear programme. She stated that Project Alpha makes an argument that Pakistan should not be given access to the NSG because it is still involved in a discreet acquisition programme for nuclear and missile technologies.
However, she contested the claim that the case made by Project Alpha lacked substance and balance in approach, as it was designed to substantiate India-US defence industry collaboration and case for NSG membership to India, rather than an objective assessment. She said that India and US are trying to shift the defence collaboration before the incoming administration in the US takes charge, adding multiple defense contracts are in the making and the outgoing US defense secretary hopes to ink them before he leaves office.
Citing one example, she stated the US defence giant Lockheed Martin's offer to shift its entire F-16 production line to India will give it a strategic edge over Pakistan. If the deal comes through, it will enable India to deny key supplies to Pakistan, which has relied on F-16s for aerial defence purposes over decades, she added. Talking about removal of Indian entities, she said that it is interesting that on consistent perusal of Indian government, US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry had removed nine Indian entities from its entity list in 2011 thus easing certain export and re-export restrictions applicable to India. She said that the removed Indian entities were involved in the Indian missile and space programme.
Similarly, she argued if the baseline for the entity sanctions list will be based on EAR99 or lowering the bar into dual use area will be a difficult run. If in this case Project Alpha is taken as key resource than the argument is all the more dangerous because the project does not differentiate between the nuclear secretariat to simple defence factories such as the Pakistan Ordnance factories, she added.
"Each has task but totally in a different realm and will require a more nuanced approach by the incoming US administration if relations are to develop between Pakistan and US," she added. As of post-2010s, she said that Pakistan has been aiming to push ahead with its export market but facing difficulties due to international guidelines enforced by the United Nations.
About Indian's bid to join NSG, she said, "The US and India will have a common industry and the defence collaboration could exclude an effective SCO without India as a key runner and we could be seeing a regional bloc sans India." She said Pakistan wants simultaneous entry into the NSG with other non-NPT states that aspire to join the group.