Pakistan Joins Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terror

Pakistan will join the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism(GICNT) which is an international initiative aimed at keeping nuclear materials away from terrorists.^[1] The initiative, only applies to civilian "facilities and activities, and Pakistan has been careful to clarify that the global initiative does not cover Pakistan's military nuclear facilities or activities.^[2]

The GICNT calls on states to improve accounting, control and physical protection of nuclear material and radioactive substances as well as the security of nuclear facilities.^[3] It was built on an existing "Proliferation Security Initiative," which a U.S.-led group of of nations that worked jointly to help seize illicit weapons as they were transported around the world.^[4]

Pakistan did not help its anti-terror image when in 2004, the scientist considered to be the father of the Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, confessed that he had leaked nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.^[5] President Gen. Pervez Musharraf then pardoned Khan for spreading the nuclear technology, citing his contribution in making Pakistan a nuclear weapons state, the only country in the Muslim world to possess the capability.^[6] Now Pakistan is trying to show that they have moved on from the past.^[7] "Pakistan's participation in the global initiative is a manifestation of the fact that nuclear security and export control measures in Pakistan are at par with latest international standards," the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.^[8]

The stated objectives of the Global Initiative To Combat Nuclear Terrorism are to build the capacity of willing partner nations to combat the global threat of nuclear terrorism. It was originally conceived to be between Russia and the U.S., however many other nations have joined. "This cooperation includes efforts to:

• Improve accounting, control, and physical protection of nuclear material and radioactive substances, as well as security of nuclear facilities;
• Detect and suppress illicit trafficking or other illicit activities involving such materials, especially measures to prevent their acquisition and use by terrorists;
• Respond to and mitigate the consequences of acts of nuclear terrorism;
• Ensure cooperation in the development of technical means to combat nuclear terrorism;
• Ensure that states takes all possible measures to deny safe haven to terrorists seeking to acquire or use nuclear materials; and
• Strengthen our respective national legal frameworks to ensure the effective prosecution of, and the certainty of punishment for, terrorists and those who facilitate such acts."^[9]
  
  

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^[1] Sadaqat Jan, Pakistan Joins Fight on Nuke Terror, Associated Press Newswire, June 10, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id. The world's five leading nuclear powers form the core of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France).
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] GICNT Fact Sheet, White House Website, July 15 , 2006, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060715-3.html (last visited June 10, 2007).