Pakistan has denied the New York Times report that it has tested an indigenously designed missile, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and hitting Delhi and Bombay and Pentagon in Washington has reinforced this denial. But that cannot quite settle the issues raised by the report. To begin with, the New York Times correspondent has not dreamed up the missile and the test. Obviously someone in a position to know of such a development has spoken to him. From the report, it would appear that the “someone” is a Pakistani. There is no good reason for us to question this part of the report, regardless of whether or not we are inclined to accept the accuracy of the statement as a whole. The “informant” must have a purpose. Indeed, not much imagination is required to identify the purpose. It is part of the war Pakistan has been waging on India, physical in the case of Siachen and supply of arms and ammunition to the terrorists in Punjab and psychological in the case of this report. The intention clearly is to put India on notice that in case it is planning a suitable riposte to the provocations in Punjab and Siachen, it better watch out. “We have the bomb and the delivery system”, Islamabad is telling New Delhi, through the New York Times. Remember that last year Islamabad had used the Indian journalist, Mr Kuldip Nayar, in a period of tension on the border, to confirm that it had made the bomb. That report, based on a claim by none other than Dr A.Q. Khan, father of the Pakistani nuclear weapons programme, and that too in a face-to-face encounter in the presence of a Pakistani editor, was also denied. So we are witnessing a repeat performance. Only the actors are different. They had to be, if only because Dr Khan does not head Pakistan’s missile programme.
This is obviously only one aspect of the matter. There is another, which is whether Pakistan has a significant rocket programme and whether this programme has proceeded to a stage where it could have yielded a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Quite candidly, we are in no position to say anything worthwhile on the subject either way. But this issue is not all that relevant. China has the missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads and if it can sell such missiles to Saudi Arabia, there can be no question that, if and when requested, it would provide these to Pakistan. So Islamabad can have the appropriate missiles as soon as it had produced the necessary warheads. And there cannot be the slightest doubt that it is moving in that direction. Surely even the Pentagon cannot deny that.