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Pak still hopeful of nuke deal with US
Pakistan said that critical issues like N-technology should not be country-specific, writes S Rajagopalan.
Despite the US's emphatic rejection of its demand for a copycat nuke deal, Pakistan is still not reconciled to the India-specific pact.
It has renewed its campaign on this issue in Washington's corridors of power, asserting that US policy "should not be leaning so heavily on one side".
Close on the heels of the introduction of legislation on the Indo-US deal in Congress, Pakistani Ambassador Jehangir Karamat has held a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher on this issue.
"We do understand and appreciate the underpinnings of the US's de-hyphenated policy in South Asia, but this should not be leaning so heavily on one side," Karamat said in a statement issued to Pakistani journalists based in Washington on Saturday.
"Instead of a country-specific deal on a subject as critical as nuclear technology, there should be a package for both India and Pakistan," he said.
His meeting with Boucher had taken place within hours of the Pakistan Foreign Office cautioning that the US's "discriminatory" India-specific waiver will have "serious implications" for the South Asian security environment.
Speaking of Pakistan's tabling of 'reciprocal restraint' as a concept that could be bilaterally discussed, Karamat's statement goes on to say: "It is also our hope that US policy will not be based on transitory and evolving trends, but rather on relationships that are maturing in these fluid situations."
There was no immediate word on what Boucher had for the Pakistani envoy, but the US leadership from President George W Bush downwards has ruled out the possibility of a similar civilian nuclear deal for Islamabad.
