Pakistan to gain access to arms as US names it non-NATO ally

PAKISTAN will be named a major non-NATO ally by the United States, making it easier for the country to acquire US arms, despite US unease about how much officials knew of nuclear leaks by a Pakistani scientist.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, in Pakistan for talks on nuclear proliferation, the hunt for Osama bin Laden and peace with India, yesterday said the status of major non-NATO ally would enhance military relations with Pakistan.

“We’ll designate Pakistan as a major non-NATO ally for purposes of our future military-to-military relations,” Mr Powell told a news conference in Islamabad.

Pakistan has for years had problems obtaining weaponry and aircraft for its military from the United States because of Washington’s concerns about its nuclear arms programmes.

The United States imposed sanctions on Pakistan after it conducted nuclear tests in 1998 but most were lifted in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, when Pakistan became a key US ally in the war on terror.

Given Pakistan’s porous border with Afghanistan, the help of Pakistan is vital if the United States is to catch bin Laden and defeat his al-Qaida network and their former Taliban supporters.

Pakistani forces are hunting al-Qaida militants in wild tribal areas on the Afghan border, while US forces mount a sweep on the Afghan side. US commanders say bin Laden and other militants will, eventually, be caught or killed.

Defence analyst Riffat Hussain said the pgrading of military ties would enable Pakistan to acquire conventional military equipment from commercial US sources.

“By implication it also means F-16 aircraft but this needs to be verified,” said Hussain, head of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

Many in Pakistan have not forgiven United States for refusing to deliver 28 F-16 fighters in the 1990s because of worry over Pakistan’s nuclear programme. The planes had been paid for, but it took eight years for the money to be refunded.

Pakistan needs spare parts for its PC-3 Orion naval surveillance aircraft. It also needs radar systems, C-130 transport aircraft, as well as spare parts for tanks and armoured personnel carriers, another defence industry analyst said.

Mr Powell’s announcement could trouble India, Pakistan’s longstanding rival, which does not have that status although it has growing military contacts with the United States and the two have agreed on an overall “strategic partnership.”

However, while announcing closer military ties, Mr Powell also raised embarrassing questions about the activities of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who early this year admitted selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. He was pardoned by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The government and armed forces have denied any part in the nuclear leaks and say Khan was acting on his own.