July 7, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 6,1424

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WASHINGTON, July 6: The United States has not asked Pakistan to rollback its nuclear programme and there has been no discussion in this regard during President Pervez Musharraf’s recent visit to Washington, diplomatic sources told Dawn on Sunday.

They referred to a recent statement issued by US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca who is reported to have told a congressional committee that the US administration had “accepted the fact that India and Pakistan are nuclear states” and wanted to work with them in that context.

Earlier this week, a senior US official had told journalists in Washington that the $3 billion aid package pledged by President George W. Bush to President Musharraf on June 24 at Camp David had two conditions: non-proliferation and democracy.

Referring to the two conditions, a senior diplomat said that when the US government “speaks of non-proliferation in this context, it wants to make sure that export control rules that apply to everybody else, also apply to Pakistan. It wants to make sure that Pakistan’s nuclear technology and nuclear know-how is not exported.”

“It is not in Pakistan’s interest to export nuclear technology to Iran or North Korea or to any other state,” said the diplomat while commenting on reports in the US media that Islamabad might have shared its expertise with others in the past.

“Absolutely no such condition,” said the diplomat when asked if the understanding reached between President Bush and President Musharraf could lead to a US demand for rolling back Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

Explaining the condition on democracy, the diplomat said: “If there’s a reversal of democracy in Pakistan, there will be a problem with the Congress but if things are done democratically and constitutionally, there will be no problem.”

Diplomatic sources also explained that conditions are designed to get annual Congressional approvals for the five-year package and “to ensure that the package does not bump into United States laws. There are no conditions as such,” as one of them said.

“Before 9/11, there was no waiver for the democracy-related sanctions. After 9/11, the Bush administration has used its waiver authority once to exempt Pakistan and hopes that it does not have to use it again,” the diplomat said.

Sources explained that although publicly the United States has not taken any position on the ongoing conflict between the MMA and President Musharraf, privately US officials are very worried.