WASHINGTON, March 18: Pakistan is believed to have conveyed to the US that instead of offering a unilateral nuclear deal to New Delhi, Washington should devise a package for both India and Pakistan. “Instead of a country-specific deal on a subject as critical as nuclear technology, there should be a package for both India and Pakistan,” said Ambassador Jehangir Karamat.

On Friday, the ambassador had a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher at the State Department where the two officials are believed to have discussed Islamabad’s reaction to the India-specific nuclear deal President Bush signed in New Delhi earlier this month.

The meeting took place hours after the Pakistan Foreign Office cautioned that grant of waiver by the US Congress to the agreement with India on civilian nuclear cooperation would have serious implications for the security environment in South Asia. The Foreign Office also said that Pakistan would not accept any discriminatory treatment.

The ambassador declined to say if he discussed Islamabad’s reaction with Mr Boucher but while talking to Pakistani journalists on Saturday he defended Foreign Office’s response as “a clarification of what we have been saying all along.”

He said that in the interest of balance of power in South Asia, there should be a package for both countries and not country-specific deals on a subject, as critical as nuclear technology.

“We do understand and appreciate the underpinnings of the US de-hyphenated policy in South Asia, but this should not be leaning so heavily on one side,” he said.

Referring to a recent statement by President Musharraf that Pakistan’s security policy was no longer India-specific; Mr Karamat said that “minimum deterrence” continued to be a pillar of Islamabad’s security strategy.

“We hope US policy will take these aspects into consideration. It is also our hope that US policy will not be based on transitory and evolving trends, but rather, on relationships that are maturing in these fluid situations,” the ambassador said.

Mr Karamat said Pakistan was committed to democracy and the government supported the development of political, social and economic institutions in the country. “The military will take its rightful place, once this process is complete; because right now it is the major driver for institutional development,” he said.

Urging the US to support Pakistan’s efforts to develop these institutions, the ambassador warned that at this stage the country “cannot afford to have internal chaos.”