ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: The whole nation has no unanimous view over the nuclear programme while the establishment often harps on its cherished theme of national consensus exploiting it to justify its hold on the country.

This was stated by Dr Haider Nizamani while quoting a study at a seminar on “The sociology of nuclear conflict”, which was organized by the SDPI here on Thursday.

Dr Nizamani, who conducted a survey in the Punjab and Sindh in June 2000, exposed the myth of national consensus by providing substantial evidences on the issue.

According to the survey, the popular perception that nuclear weapons have spruced up the image of Pakistan internationally was given a hard blow when 31 per cent respondents said “No” to it in Sindh and the same number in the Punjab.

Had the survey been conducted after September 11, the figures would have been quite high, said Nizamani.

Similarly, the question as whether they believe in what the government says about its nuclear programme, 45% and 26% people say ‘No’ in Sindh and the Punjab respectively.”

This crisis of incredibility indicates that people have their own independent thinking and don’t passively buy the government’s point of view”, he said.

About the query that who should control nuclear weapons, majority favoured Army but a sizable number held that politicians and scientists should be the custodian of the nuclear weapons.”This also shows that people have trust on their political representatives despite their continuous character assassination on state media,” he added.

According to the survey, 36% people both in Sindh and Punjab disagreed that there was no danger of conventional conflict that could lead to nuclear war. About retaining nuclear programme at any cost, 44% in Sindh and 49% in Punjab responded in affirmative. A considerable number said Pakistan should sign CTBT. Similarly, a good number of people say Pakistan should resort to nuclear weapons if India attacks Pakistan. “In fact the poor masses are unaware of the nuke holocaust otherwise they would never say such things,” Dr Nizamani said.

Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy said some of the results were highly encouraging, which showed sanity in the society.— Junaid Bahadur