US EDITION
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Pak's nuke fete shocks West

Pakistan conducted nuclear tests 'reluctantly' and only because of national security fears, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief had felt obliged to explain last year after the country became the youngest member of the nuclear club.

One year later, his government has turned the first anniversary of the May 28 underground tests into a 10-day-long official celebration, shocking the international community and peace activists.

''It is certainly not our view that this is something to celebrate,'' said a White House spokesman at a briefing in Washington. ''It is a step in the wrong direction.''

''What are we celebrating?'' asked outspoken lawyer Asma Jahangir. ''Pakistan tested not because of its own initiative but under duress, according to the government's own admission.''

Although a few cautious comments have appeared in a couple of English language newspapers, the media appears wary of antagonising the government and has adopted a policy of self-censorship.

For a couple of weeks, the English language Dawn newspaper published readers' letters denouncing the celebrations. But these have disappeared from the Letters to the Editor column, and no newspaper is willing to carry protest letters.

Letters written by Pakistani activists as well as others from Britain, Argentina and the United States to another newspaper have been simply ignored, according to an editorial assistant.

''We've been given a written directive by the chief editor to be very careful in what we print regarding the nuclear celebrations,'' she said. ''And if we print anything, it should be slanted more in favour of the celebrations than against.''

Official announcements on the state-controlled PTV have declared the day on which the blasts were conducted last year as the ''most historic day since Pakistan was born''.

Pakistanis are being invited to participate in a 'name the day' competition on television with a prize of 100,000 Pakistani rupees (2,000 dollars) for the winner, and the state television is telecasting nationalistic songs along with clips of the country's successful launch of new missiles this year.

May 28 has been declared a national holiday, and among the functions planned are a rally at the mausoleum of Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, to be addressed by the prime minister, and thanksgiving prayers in mosques countrywide.

At 1517 hours (local time), when Pakistan detonated the nuclear devices last year, the country will observe silence for one-minute and later honour Pakistan's nuclear scientists at a ceremony presided over by the prime minister.

Government ministries have joined in the celebration: the ministry of sports and culture has arranged sports and cultural events across the country, while the Pakistan National Council of Arts will be holding a national art competition.

The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation has announced special holiday packages for the three-day-long weekend.

What the government wants is to ''both broaden and deepen support within Pakistan for nuclear weapons,'' points out Pakistani physicist and activist Zia Mian who teaches at the Princeton University in the United States.

''It is this support that the government will subsequently point to in international discussions and say it cannot agree to arms control, never mind disarmament,'' he said.

The government may have silenced voices of dissent by a fresh attack on non-governmental organisations. It banned some 2,000 groups in Punjab and more than 200 in Sindh last week.

A new law is now on the anvil to regulate NGOs and their sources of funding. Punjab Minister for Social Welfare Pir Binyamin Rizvi has publicly accused several NGOs of 'misusing funds' and 'misleading the people, especially women'.

Among the NGOs being accused of a 'western agenda' are the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Shirkat Gah and Aurat Foundation, though they are not on the banned list.

Ominously, their names have been cropping up as 'enemies of the nation' on a morning television talk show that had vilified Najam Sethi, the detained editor of The Friday Times , before he was dragged away by security forces on May 8.

Aziz Siddiqui, a prominent journalist and joint director of HRCP, believes the de-registration of the NGOs is a ''mere camouflage and the real targets are the few genuine organisations that raise hurdles in the way of the government's designs or cause it frequent embarrassment.''

The HRCP is part of the Joint Action Committee for Peoples Rights, an umbrella organisation of some 30 NGOs, which shared last year's UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh prize for peace and tolerance with India's Narayan Desai, for its anti-nuclear stand.

''The fledgling peace movement in Pakistan is working in an extraordinarily difficult and hostile atmosphere,'' observes Dr Zia Mian.

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:

Pakistan intensifies shelling of Kargil, Drass

Tell us what you think of this report