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'Nawaz Sharief had no choice'

Tanvir Ahmed

It was only under tremendous pressure from the Pakistani people that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief decided to carry out the nuclear tests. He had no other choice ever since India tested the five nuclear tests on May 11 and May 13.

There was a feeling among the Pakistanis that they could not avoid it after the Indian government went in for nuclear tests.

Ever since the creation of Pakistan on August 14, 1947, there has been a feeling among Pakistanis that they should keep themselves up with India in all the fields, especially defence.

People in Pakistan are rejoicing that their country has become a nuclear state. In fact, on the streets of Lahore and Karachi, people have come out and distributed sweets after this event. There are rumours that many localities will be decorated and there will be functions held tonight.

In my opinion, our economy will be affected only if Western governments place trade sanctions, not if they just withdraw aid loans.

At present our country has a reserves of $ 63 billion as per the statistics provided by the State Bank of Pakistan. There have been times when our reserves have been less than this, so, this situation is nothing new to us. An interesting point to note is that the Pakistani rupee gained 20 paise today, even though we went for the nuclear tests.

We import a great amount of oil. And that is only what could affect our economy. But, we import oil mostly from Muslim countries. And they won't stop their imports because they too will be proud that for the first time a Muslim country has made its entry into the nuclear club. Moreover, our ties with many oil exporting countries are on a yearly basis and not on daily basis.

As far as consumer goods are concerned, Pakistan is self-sufficient. However, there are many goods for which Pakistan has to depend heavily on imports. This is the only thing that will be a cause for concern for Nawaz Sharif if sanctions are imposed.

Four years ago the developed nations banned military aid to Pakistan. So, I don't know how the new sanctions will affect Pakistan's technology.

As far as signing CTBT and NPT is concerned. I think Pakistan has made its stand clear -- that they will sign it only if India does it simultaneously.

The important challenges before Nawaz Sharief will be how to tackle development work. He will have to bring people with a lot of black money into the tax network.

By this testing, Nawaz Sharief has certainly emerged as a strong leader. But the real test will come after the Pakistani people face harsh economic sanctions. However, his promise that he will leave the prime minister's official residence is seen as only a political gimmick.

The real test for Nawaz Sharief is how he will ensure funds for both development work as well as the Pakistani army.

Tanvir Ahmed, assistant editor, the Dawn newspaper, spoke to Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

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