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Pak ready to arm Ghauri, says PM

Pakistan detonated five nuclear devices on Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief said in an address to the nation.

Originally, it was believed that only two devices were exploded at a remote test site in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province.

Sharief said India's detonation two weeks ago of five nuclear devices violently tilted the balance of power in the region. India's deployment of long-range Prithvi missiles against Pakistan, coupled with the detonation by India of nuclear devices, seriously threatened Pakistan's security, he argued.

"From the industrialised world, Pakistan received no offer of assistance or security guarantees," Sharief said in his broadcast. Rather, he added, the "lacklustre" attitude of the West only "served to embolden India".

Sharief did not offer any information about the type or strength of the five devices Pakistan exploded in the Chagai Hills region today.

His government has been under pressure from across the political spectrum to explode a nuclear device of its own since India carried out its first three tests on May 11. The second round of testing by India, on May 13, made it virtually impossible for Sharief's government to hold back.

Threatened with heavy economic sanctions in the event that it tested a nuclear device, Sharief in his speech tried to prepare his nation for the troubled times ahead.

He said that it will be difficult times ahead, but that he would stand with his people. ''I give you this assurance, if the nation will only take one meal a day then my children will take only one meal a day,'' he said.

He promised the people of Pakistan that his government will sell off a large number of government buildings and offices and use the money to help the country through the tough times ahead because of the expected sanctions.

''Your government is with you,'' he promised. ''We will have sanctions. We will have difficulties. But if you have the strength, there is no way we can fail.''

For the last two days, US intelligence reports have been saying that Pakistan was close to testing a nuclear device. Since India's tests on May 11, international leaders have telephoned Sharief constantly, urging Pakistan not to go in for its own tests.

But in the end, Sharief told the nation that Pakistan had only its own defences to rely upon -- the rest of the world, he said, had given a feeble response to India. In fact, Sharief argued, some world leaders have even been saying that sanctions against India could be lifted if it signs the CTBT. In all this, the Pak PM said, Pakistan's security worries have been ignored, as were Pakistan's earlier warnings that India was preparing to test a nuclear device.

''We never wanted our region to develop nuclear weapons,'' Sharief told his countrymen in Urdu. ''But Pakistan was pushed to take the decision to test to protect its security.''

The nuclear test is bound to bring a host of economic sanctions against Pakistan, something the impoverished nation of 140 million people will find hard to afford.

Unlike India, Pakistan is heavily dependent on international assistance and loans. Sanctions are expected to seriously hurt an economy that is already struggling.

Meanwhile, an official statement issued following the testing said that Pakistan was preparing to arm its long-range Ghauri missile, tested on April 6, and capable of hitting most targets in India.

''The long-range Ghauri missile is already being capped with the nuclear warheads to give a befitting reply to any misadventure by the enemy,'' a statement said.

Economists indicate that Pakistan may, as an immediate consequence, be forced to default on its $ 800 million debt payment due at the end of June.

UNI

Listen to Nawaz Sharief's speech, in Real Audio

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