Pakistan must shun arms race

Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, leading Pakistani physicist and peace activist

The peoples of India and Pakistan stand closer to the brink of disaster than ever before. We are witnessing grotesque and obscene celebrations of the power to destroy. Today the champagne is flowing in Delhi.

"We will soon bring Pakistan to its knees", crows the president of the BJP, Khushabau Thakre. Barely a month ago it was Pakistan that had been joyous after the launch of the Ghauri missile. Euphoric crowds had made their pilgrimage to the Kahuta laboratory, and Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Gauhar Ayub, bragged about having overtaken India in missile development. It is hard to imagine greater stupidity.

For the last fifteen years, peace activists in Pakistan have ceaselessly urged their government not to get into a nuclear competition with India. This is not a race that Pakistan can ever win. That this was correct has now been proven beyond a shadow of doubt. We have argued that the real threat to Pakistan is internal -- low rates of production coupled with an excessive appetite for consumption, religious and ethnic tensions, and an education system which collapsed years ago. If we plunge into an arms race with India, we will never be able to address these problems.

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