United Nation panel questions nuclear expenses of Pakistan, India

Pakistan and India, the two neighboring countries and nuclear powers, are facing mounting international scrutiny for spending hefts amounts of national exchequer on nuclear installations rather than on developmental projects.

Niclas Kvarnstrom, the Swedish diplomat while speaking the United Nation meeting on nuclear disarmament observed, “The world’s de facto nuclear powers are likely to spend $1 billion on nuclear weapons in the coming decade”

Pakistan, India, North Korea and Israel include among the “de facto” nuclear weapon states. Conversely, the exact amount of money that Pakistan and India are spending to keep its nuclear arsenal integral remains classified, he added.

The US-based Reaching Critical Will, a non-profitable organization that stands for nuclear disarmament and peace and works closely with the United Nations, claimed that Pakistan spends around $2.5 billion on nuclear weapons annually.

A criticism was mounted on Pakistan and India by diplomats of those countries that do not possesses nuclear technology. They wondered why hundreds of millions of dollars must be spent on weapons of mass destruction and not on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs envisages a 50% reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; promotion of gender equality; and reversal of the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other deadly diseases — all by 2015.

Niclas Kvarnstrom while speaking to the meeting described the hefty amounts spending by de facto nuclear countries as mind boggling, urging all the members to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The CTBT requires ban all nuclear explosions on the Earth’s surface, atmosphere, outer space, underwater and underground. As many as 182 countries from across the globe have signed this treaty, of which 157 have also sanctioned it.

Pakistan and India along with some other states, however, have not inked the treaty. According to a new research released by the Reaching Critical Will, nuclear states possess around 19, 500 weapons of mass destruction.

The research also claimed that nuclear powers continue to overhaul armories despite commitment to nuclear disarmament.

It added that as many as eight nuclear-armed states including China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States are engaged in activities to overhaul their nuclear technology.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Apr 18 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.