UNITED NATIONS, Nov 4: Pakistan said on Monday that it had successfully established a strong safety culture in its nuclear activities, stressing that it had strengthened security measures around nuclear installations to avoid any possibility of nuclear terrorism or of illicit trafficking of nuclear material.

Addressing a plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly on the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Pakistan’s Ambassador to UN Munir Akram said: “We are highly sensitive to the safety and security of our nuclear installations, particularly when Pakistan is extending its nuclear power generation for the economic development.

“Pakistan has successfully established a strong safety culture in its nuclear activities. We are diligently adhering to principles of Nuclear Safety Convention, which Pakistan signed at the time of its inception,” he added

He said that Pakistan’s active participation in the agency’s initiative to strengthen the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) would continue, and held out an assurance to the UN that Islamabad was desirous of an early conclusion of deliberations on this convention with the hope that this important convention would enable Pakistan to enhance its capabilities to protect its nuclear installations and the material in a more effective manner.

About strengthening the IAEA’s safeguards system, Mr Akram said: “Pakistan believes that the maintenance of a proper balance between the promotional aspects and safety or security-related concerns in all of the agency’s functions is essential.”

He, however, cautioned that the agency’s safeguards should not be used to serve partisan political objectives. “Its verification regime could remain credible only if it is applied on a non-discriminatory basis as stipulated in the agency’s statutes. Cooperation and greater understanding is required among all the member states of the agency to advance the agency’s mandate on the basis of impartiality, equity and professionalism.”

Mr Akram said that the IAEA’s technical cooperation required a reassessment of its current framework so that it could assist member states on non-discriminatory and equitable basis.

He said the safety and verification aspects of the IAEA mandate remained important pillars of the agency’s mandate and that there was need to focus attention on securing “orphan” sources of such materials which posed an immediate danger of falling into the wrong hands.”