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Minister for Human Rights Dr. Shireen Mazari Friday underlined the need for exhibiting holistic approach at international level towards controlling arms, urging the member states of Nuclear Non-Proliferation-Treaty (NPT) to abide by the agreement in letter and spirit. “We need to look into the issue holistically,” she said while addressing a workshop titled “Changing Arms Control Dynamics in the Emerging Global Scenario and its Impact on Our Region,” organized by the Strategies Studies Institute Islamabad (SSII).

She said the nuclear arms control regimes were basically being challenged now, adding the fragmentation of the nuclear arms control regimes started happening when some of the NPT signatories broke their commitments to the treaty’s articles 1&2 by signing nuclear deal with India. The minister said the NPT signatories had categorically stated in the said articles that “they will not share any nuclear or dual used technology with non-signatories of the treaty. So there is a total fragmentation of all arms controls and disarmament regimes which made nuclear arms control totally redundant.”

Dr. Shireen said the NPT signatories were trying to make smallest and tactical battlefield weapons, “So they can rethink weapons in terms of war-fighting, not just for deterrence. We all have to rethink whether our nuclear weapons are going to be for deterrence purposes or we also go to think about using small, tactical and battlefield nukes in actual battles and warfare. That is the dilemma or the contradiction that prevails.

“She said hybrid warfare was not new as it started with the cold war regime “But the form of hybrid warfare has changed. Pakistan should not be complacent about deterrence we need to be able to now rethink a number of our strategies, for example, we need to focus on tactical weapons, deterrence plus war-fighting because the challenge is there.”

The minister said India’s nuclear proliferation record was worst and even documented but nobody talked about it, reiterating “there is a fragmentation of existing international arms control regimes. We have to have more holistic approach especially towards Artificial Intelligence weapons, robotic weapons especially hybrid warfare.”

She said with the more holistic approach that required inputs from international lawyers, academicians, scientists diplomats “We need really to reevaluate the way we form our policies whether they are defence or foreign. “By and large, she said, many countries had now started placing human right as ‘central point’ of their foreign policies especially European countries and “Time has come to actually reevaluate how we do diplomacy, and sooner we have that holistic approach better it will be.

Former Director General Arms Control and Disarmament Khalid Banuri, Director Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Husham Ahmed Cheema and Executive Director Center for Peace Security and Development Syed Muhammad Ali also spoke on various aspects of the changing arms control dynamics in the emerging global scenario and its impact on the South Asian region.

Courtesy: Urdu Point.

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