ISLAMABAD, April 6: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the whole initiative of the US-India civilian nuclear deal can be enveloped in a nuclear restraint regime which allows production of fissile material for all of South Asia.

Speaking to CNN about the importance of such a deal for Pakistan, Mr Aziz said: “As you know the energy needs of both countries are growing. Pakistan’s economy is growing at 6 to 8 per cent a year and our energy needs are very acute.”

“Pakistan’s energy needs are similar [to India’s] and we would like this opportunity to be used to come up with nuclear restraint environment.”

He said it would be “good for Pakistan and good for the region” if the country has “more avenues of peaceful production of nuclear energy under IAEA safeguards and guidelines to meet her growing electricity needs”.

About its future impact, the prime minister said: “We believe that a nuclear restraint regime around the whole issue will help control production of fissile material in South Asia and lead to the lowering of tension and peace.”

He added that it would be helpful for containing production of fissile material. “And we have made this position clear to the US administration,” said Mr Aziz. “We hope as things progress, we will continue our discussions.”

Mr Aziz said that the A.Q. Khan episode was closed from all perspectives and “we have shared whatever information we could have with the stakeholders.”

In response to queries about third or fourth party involvement in nuclear proliferation, he said “there is no such information and I think these are only speculations, we have interrogated and investigated this matter and we think the whole issue is closed.”—APP