Log In | Register
By a strange coincidence whenever there is going to be legislation on aid or arms sales to Pakistan the US media throws a spanner in the works. This is done by either dredging up the nuclear proliferation issue or coming up with something new. This time it is the idea that Pakistan has modified the US supplied HARPOON sea to sea missile for sea to land attack and has extended its range. Pakistan should be happy to note that it is credited with such technology innovation capabilities but unfortunately the US media is also sometimes a vehicle for indirectly disseminating US official thinking.
That is not all. The US is also the happy hunting ground for various lobbies and the one that has worked against Pakistan is the Israeli-American Jewish and the Indian lobby. India would be at the heart of any such endeavor. There is also the money factor that works so well in Washington DC with lobbyists all over the landscape.
Pakistan has denied the allegation. This had to be done as a routine response otherwise the report with no basis, no statistics and no credible sources was obviously little more than kite flying. There is no doubt that Pakistan now has indigenous advanced missile technology including cruise missiles. Pakistan's nuclear capability that includes multiple delivery systems is its strategic deterrence response to the threat from a nuclear armed India that has significant conventional force superiority.
US military sales to Pakistan have inbuilt safeguards against transfers to a third country and modifications to supplied equipment. The US even carries out periodic inspections. This makes such loose statements counter productive and downright harmful for US-Pakistan relations. Pakistan's track record with US supplied systems is impeccable.
The military sales relationship with the US does not restrict Pakistan from pursuing other sources for supplies and nor does it stop Pakistan from using its own capacity to develop new technologies.
Ghalib Sultan
*** ** ***
