THIS is with reference to the article ‘Benazir and the bomb’ (May 4). I wish to remind all concerned about a television interview given by General Mirza Aslam Beg to journalist Najam Sethi on a private television channel on August 29, 2009, in which he had stated clearly that the late Benazir Bhutto was not a security risk, rather she took a decision that in his estimation no other ruler could have taken regarding the country’s nuclear capability.

During her first term in office, Pakistan had not publicly gone nuclear. Yet, in 1990, when Pakistan’s atomic assets were under a threat, she had asked General Beg, who was the army chief at the time, to station at Mauripur Airport a whole air fighter squadron fitted with nuclear weapons to smash any or all Indian sites targeting Pakistan at the earliest sign of a threat. Gen Beg, Najam Sethi and the footage are all available on record.

Dr. Muhammad Reza Kazimi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2021